


Lit by Blood

by easytea, glxykpop



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fantasy, M/M, MAMA Era Powers (EXO), Minor Character Death, mild violence, slight horror/gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 40,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29166906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easytea/pseuds/easytea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/glxykpop/pseuds/glxykpop
Summary: When the darkness threatens the world, Yixing must work together with someone he least expected.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay
Comments: 9
Kudos: 14
Collections: EXO Relay





	Lit by Blood

**Author's Note:**

> **A1 (easytea):** hello~ I never thought I would have the experience of writing a fic with someone, but here we are and I have the sweet mods to thank for that! So really thank you for creating this fest!! It's been quite a journey and a positive leaning experience for me as a writer. I would like to apologise in advance if the ending seems a bit rushed since I had to write the last 6k or so words by myself when tired and sad. I still think it's great though *_* Anyway, we've both worked extremely hard to write and complete this fic so I really do hope you enjoy!!! - (ʘᴗʘ✿)
> 
> **A2:** Hi all! This was such a fun change and something I never thought I would be able to do. It spiralled into something way bigger than I thought it would and I'm honoured that I got to work with A1 ^^ I want to say a special thank you to them for all their work on the ending. I got very ill near the deadline and without their hard work, this wouldn't have been able to happen! So, thank you, thank you, thank you for saving this whilst I was bed bound >.<  
> I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

With his hands covered in blood, Yixing applies more pressure to the wound he’s trying to treat. The noise from outside threatens to steal his attention from his work so he closes his eyes to allow his magic to simply feel. He chases the wound to its deepest point before slowly letting his magic stitch everything back together. When he’s sure all the damage has been repaired, he pulls his magic back and opens his eyes. The man beneath his hands is still unconscious but his breathing and heart rate have evened out so Yixing feels fine handing him over to easier care.

Blood covers everything; his hands and robes are covered in the blood from those he’s had to treat. The darkness had suddenly advanced on a small village on the outskirts and Yixing had been called in to help heal the wounded. Sighing at the state of himself, Yixing stands and moves over to the basin of clean water someone had left in the medical room. He manages to get his hands mostly clean, but he’s relying on the black and deep red of his robes to hide just how much blood is weighing them down.

Progressing out into the corridor, he’s met by Junmyeon, the leader of this particular rescue mission. They’ve worked together a few times in the past and Yixing is comforted by the presence of someone who can be trusted to keep things under control. Junmyeon doesn’t need to ask how anyone is. Yixing’s reputation and the now silent medical room confirms that no-one is critical any longer. They share a quick nod before Yixing is getting up to follow him. They walk in silence as they head to one of the smaller rooms typically used for debriefings. Once there, Junmyeon stops him from opening the door.

“What’s wrong?” Yixing asks, hand on the door handle.

“Just, if things happen like last time, maybe we should think about telling a few of our friends from the same class,” Junmyeon answers then lets out a large sigh. Yixing would like to push the thought of keeping secrets that could affect everyone he knows and doesn’t know far from his memory. “Did anything weird happen?”

“First point noted and no. Nothing out of the norm aside from more of the darkness appearing more than usual, but everyone knows that by now. Why, did you see something?”

Junmyeon shakes his head. “Same old, same old. Let’s get going.”

Yixing enters first, eyeing the Commander and a few higher ups as he walks in. Some look spooked by their entrance and he notices Officer Park whisper something into Commander’s ear before giving that fake smile Yixing has always hated.

“We’ll wait for a few more bearers to arrive before beginning,” Officer Park informs. Yixing and Junmyeon both nod before taking their seats.

It isn’t long before three more bearers join them—Yoona, Seohyun, and Hyojong—and their meeting starts. It’s rather boring and more of the same topics they’ve covered in the past. Nothing seems to be progressing aside from the darkness beginning to spread further than it has before when it used to be contained to just smaller villages. Yixing hopes this isn’t the prophecy coming to life, one that spoke of the darkness consuming the light. He doesn’t want to imagine a world where people’s bodies are taken over and forced to hurt others. They’re lucky they’ve been able to extract the darkness from whomever they’ve come across so far.

By the time the debriefing is over, Yixing learns nothing new and shares little of all the damage he’s had to heal and leaves, intending to get properly cleaned as quickly as possible.

Pausing only to collect clean robes and a towel, Yixing beelines for the baths. Most remote stations still have the large, open baths with only the central academy having another option. Thankfully, they’re empty when he arrives and Yixing lowers himself into the warm waters gratefully. He feels his magic rejuvenating, the warmth bleeding through his muscles and soothing away the traces of exhaustion. Any evidence of where he’s been for the last few hours is washed away as he soaks beneath the water. His mind drifts, analysing the injuries the darkness had caused that he’s just healed, trying to assess if they’ve grown any worse from the last attack but nothing stands out to him. Putting it aside, he lets his mind drift aimlessly as he returns to full capacity.

His peaceful relaxation is shattered by a loud voice he recognises a little too well.

“Ahh, Yixing, they pulled you in too, huh?” Yixing slits open his eyes to see Baekhyun standing by the edge of the bath, slowly unwinding the belt around his waist. The tips of his fingers are smudged black almost to his knuckles, leaving black dust where he touches his robes. It betrays his previous whereabouts, revealing that he’s probably just got back from forcing some of the darkness to retreat.

Yixing hums, but doesn’t utter a single sound more, eyes closing as he hears the water sloshing around him.

Of course they would bring Baekhyun back to join in their fight. _Smart. Naturally gifted._ The same kid who had joked around in class was effortlessly one of their strongest and now a grown man who would be too invaluable not to have around. It would honestly be puzzling if they hadn’t called for his return.

“Still not a talker, eh?” Baekhyun’s laughter echoes after a few minutes pass. Yixing silently groans. “Or is it still just _‘a Baekhyun thing,’_ if I recall correctly.”

 _It’s always you,_ Yixing thinks before letting out a deep sigh.

  
  


_Tears peeked at the corners of Yixing’s eyes as the flower before him withered away, its last petal falling to the ground. Even after six months of training Yixing couldn’t get the most basic of lessons right. He was a born healer, but if he couldn’t learn to control and harness his power on command then how was he ever going to help actual people? Sure he was only ten, the age at which most magic wielders discovered their abilities and were sent to master them, but life literally depended on him. His fists balled into the dirt and he’s ready to scream until he heard cheers from his classmates and looked to his left._

_The ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ caused him to glare and bite down on his bottom lip in pure jealousy._

_There_ he _was—Byun Baekhyun emitted a tiny beam of light from his palm, a proud smile plastered across his face. When the light disappeared and reappeared right before their classmates’ eyes, the cheers only grew louder; Yixing grew more disappointed in himself._

_‘Is it that easy?’_

_‘Can you do it again?’_

_‘Are you a genius?’_

_Baekhyun snickered and put on a magic show of opening and closing his hand for a few minutes and they all ate it up, even their instructor who waltzed over to the group of students as he clapped his hands._

_“Amazing Byun,” Mr. Shim congratulated. “You’re moving remarkably fast.”_

_“Ah, really?” Baekhyun grinned with rosey cheeks. “Thanks, but everyone else is doing a good job too!”_

_“You’re right,” Mr. Shim mumbled. “Remember class, hard work pays off in the end. We’ll take a break for now as it’s almost lunch time. Let’s go back inside.”_

_As the other students trailed at Mr. Shim’s feet, Yixing dragged his own._ ‘Hard work pays off in the end.’ _Mr. Shim’s words played in his head over and over until he bumped into another student. It just had to be Baekhyun._

_“You alright?” Baekhyun asked instead of scolding him for not paying attention, surprising the young healer. Yixing didn’t speak; why would Baekhyun even be concerned about him? Shouldn’t he be with their classmates who’re genuinely happy for him? When the silence continued, Baekhyun poked Yixing on his cheek, making him frown. “Hey, you okay there?”_

  
  


Yixing is torn from his peacefulness by the familiar feeling of a finger prodding his cheek.

“Hey, you okay there? Why are you ignoring me?” As Yixing re-opens his eyes, he’s startled by Baekhyun’s sudden proximity. Jerking backwards to increase the space between them, he shoots a quick glare in Baekhyun’s direction. Baekhyun has the audacity to laugh at his reaction and Yixing has to force himself to not get riled up like he used to. Huffing a sigh, he schools his features back into indifference.

“I came here to bathe. Only finished with the injured a little while ago.” Yixing relents and explains his presence.

“It’s a shame you healers are so rare, it must be pretty demanding having to work everyone by yourself.” Pausing as if trying to think of a solution to the lack of healers, Baekhyun leans back against the edge of the bath. His elbows catch over the sides, holding him high in the water and keeping most of his upper body dry.

“It is fine. I can handle it.” Consenting to his peace being well and truly shattered, Yixing leans forward and tugs his hair out from the small ponytail he keeps it in whilst he works. He drags his fingers through the strands and digs his fingertips into his scalp, relieving some of the tightness there. It must have been at least six hours since he began healing the villagers and his hair protests being taken down. Regardless, it’s another step towards calming his mind out of it’s work emergency state. He’s been tempted a few times to just cut the whole thing short like he keeps the sides but he knows a part of him would miss it so he’s never actually gone through with it.

Dropping his hands back to the water, Yixing catches Baekhyun’s eyes trained intently on him. A light flush paints Baekhyun’s skin. Ignoring the gaze locked on him, Yixing tilts backwards to let the water soak into his hair. Water fills his ears and he misses the sounds of Baekhyun moving around. When he straightens back up, Baekhyun is back to invading his personal space. He’s got one of the bars of soap clutched in his hand and Yixing warily waits for him to speak.

“I can help you if you’d like?” Is all Baekhyun offers. Yixing’s eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“Help with what?”

“Your hair. I can wash it for you if you’d like.” Baekhyun holds the soap forward as if it will help explain his statement. Blinking a few times to make sure he’s not suddenly hallucinating, Yixing struggles to find a response. Logically, there’s no reason to not let Baekhyun wash his hair. It’ll likely be more relaxing to let someone else handle it and whilst Yixing isn’t overly fond of that much contact, it wouldn’t be that over the top. But it’s Baekhyun. The same Baekhyun he’s done everything to hold at distance all these years so as not to be charmed just like everyone else.

They don’t mix.

Yet Yixing still wordlessly accepts Baekhyun’s offer by turning away from him and sinking a little further into the water. He hears a tiny _‘hehe’_ fall from Baekhyun’s lips before he feels lathered hands massaging into his scalp. It takes everything in him not to relax into warm fingertips, into the soft melody Baekhyun sings that has his skin prickling. The calm aura that has always surrounded Baekhyun is so easy to get lost in. Maybe it’s because he’s a light bearer—he’s heard stories of their entrancing nature—that it’s hard to ignore Baekhyun. But not ignoring doesn’t mean fully putting himself at ease.

So he stays rigid and twiddles his thumbs beneath the surface until Baekhyun is gently tilting his head back and washing the stress, the budding fear of the darkness away.

“All done,” Baekhyun says as he swims to Yixing’s front. “Though I think one of your rings may have fallen out during the fight,” and taps his own left ear.

Yixing mimics the action to count from his lobe to his temple and all nine rings around his ear are in place. He then presses his finger against the skin where his tragus barbell should be, but finds it empty. Luckily, it isn’t the one his parents had gifted him a few summers ago.

“It’ll be fine,” Yixing waves off.

“We can go to the market and get you a new one,” Baekhyun suggests, eyes hopeful. Yixing wonders if that positive attitude regarding them will remain for a lifetime. And it’s not that they don’t get along, they’re just different. Or maybe that’s just him refusing to let Baekhyun get close, Yixing wonders as he lowers himself into the water and rises again. It wouldn’t be the first and probably not the last time Baekhyun has reached out only for him to pull away. “Yixing?” Baekhyun calls, snapping said man from his thoughts. “Getting lost in your own thoughts again?”

He shakes his head and takes a bar of soap into his hand to begin washing himself. “We’re not here to shop.”

“What’s a little fun? We’re going to be running around fighting for a long time. _If_ the prophecy has come this time. Wouldn’t be the first false alarm.”

And Baekhyun does have a point—they have been called back before only to find out what they’ve been fighting against really isn’t the darkness coming fully to bring the world down but it just lingering among the surface and causing havoc among villages. But there’s _something_ keeping him on edge and making him have one too many sleepless nights with the chaos it brings. The other healers and advice from the elders hasn’t helped with shaking off the uneasy feeling in his gut, telling him it’s just from overexerting himself from how many have been wounded. It could actually happen in their time.

“Whether it’s true or not, now isn’t the time to relax.”

“It’s a quick trip to the market and back.” Baekhyun then steals the bar of soap from Yixing’s grip to use on his own body. “C’mon? Think of it as a bonding activity. You’re the only person in our year that I hardly know. You can’t avoid me forever.” The pout on Baekhyun’s lip almost makes him want to agree. “Please?”

Yixing stands, not missing the little smirk on Baekhyun’s lips as he eyes him thoroughly.

Whilst everything from his hips down is still hidden by the water, Baekhyun doesn’t hold back from taking in all he can see. Objectively, Yixing knows he’s in good shape. Refusing to fit the stereotypical image of a healer being weak and needing constant protection, Yixing made sure he was able to handle himself both on and off any potential battlefield. This refusal to conform had led to Yixing going as far as to be one of very few healers who could weaponise their ability, usually something confined to rumours and stories. As a side effect of defying the view that healers were all gentle, people tended to view him in the complete opposite way. Very few people even tried to talk to him anymore, let alone befriend him besides the people he knew from back in class.

Turning his back on Baekhyun, Yixing climbs out of the water. Since moving from classes to the real world, Yixing had lost any of his prudish nature. Nudity was just another thing he’d had to deal with when healing people. Clearly, the same attitude isn’t there for Baekhyun as Yixing can feel his gaze burning into his skin. A small tug quirks the corner of Yixing’s lips as he hears Baekhyun’s breath hitch he reaches for his towel. Knowing Baekhyun likes what he sees, Yixing decides to tease. Before he can think better of it, Yixing lifts the towel to his hair, tightening all the muscles in his back as he does it. He’s rewarded with another catch in Baekhyun’s breathing and, as he rubs the towel against his hair, he forces his face back into it’s usual look. Deciding he’s had enough fun, he wraps the towel around his waist, before turning back around to face Baekhyun. The flush on Baekhyun’s cheeks and ears is even more noticeable than before and Yixing allows himself to feel a moment of small victory. Yixing is about to speak but he cuts off when he hears the door behind him swing open. Both Baekhyun and Yixing’s attention shifts to the newcomer.

Jongdae freezes in place under both their stares. His grip tightens on his towel, the lightning marks flexing with the muscles in his forearm. They’re darker against his skin, betraying Jongdae’s recent use of his ability. The awkward mood breaks when Yixing smiles at him.

“Ahh, Jongdae, seems like they’ve called in our whole class this time.” Yixing’s expression is soft and the panic fades from Jongdae’s face. They’d been friends since class, back when Jongdae wasn’t as comfortable controlling his ability and he’d end up hurting himself. Yixing hadn’t even asked, he’d simply sat down one day and gently healed the wounds. Since then, they’d maintained a good friendship despite being sent to different locations in the beginning. They were at the opposite end of the spectrum in ability, but the use of lightning for bearers was taxing on the body and they somehow managed to get paired up in missions quite often nowadays maybe because they knew each other so well from class. “Let me know if you have some spare time and we can catch up. It’s been longer than usual for them to not send us out together.”

“Sure thing,” Jongdae grins with a pat to Yixing’s shoulder. “And you _have_ to finish that story about that guy from the bar. I need to know if you won or not.” Jongdae snickers like he doesn’t already know the answer. Yixing rolls his eyes. “Catch you later.”

Yixing exits the baths, making sure to grab his clean robes on the way out as he ignores the shouts of _‘hey!’_ and _‘get back here!’_ from Baekhyun. He stops by the medical room to drop off his towel and slip into his robes before heading straight to the dining hall. Now that he has a moment to himself, he realizes he’s absolutely _starving._ He bumps into a few members from the last mission, thanking each other for a job well done, one even telling him to hurry to the hall before they run out of food since more teams are starting to trail back in. Yixing knows he’ll need it when they call him in to help other healers. They always do.

The dining hall isn’t too crowded when he steps in, just a few of the rectangular tables filled who Yixing assumes are teammates. He goes over to the largest table lined with food from end to end. It makes Yixing wonder for a second just how many of them did they call back, but the thought is instantly replaced once his mouth starts to water and his hands are already reaching for a tray. He doesn’t pay attention to what he grabs—only thought is if it appears appetizing enough—and as soon as his tray is stacked with vegetables and meat, he goes to sit at an empty table that’s far enough from everyone, grabbing a mug of hard cider along the way.

There’s a few glances and odd stares in his direction, but Yixing pays them no mind as he bites into what he finds out is wild boar. It’s mouth watering and _god_ he could eat this and much more for days with how much energy he has and is going to lose. He gets so caught up in eating that he misses the tray being slammed onto the table along with a mug. It isn’t until a gust of wind tickles his neck, making his body scrunch from the intrusion, that he notices Sehun sitting opposite from him.

 _Why do I keep running into everyone today?_ Yixing is ready to only give Sehun a simple acknowledgement so he can eat in peace and maybe chat after until he notices the way Sehun’s brow furrows and lips flatten when he doesn’t touch a single piece of food. Yixing sighs, loudly at that, hoping to get Sehun’s attention and have him speak first, but he remains silent. But it makes sense considering Sehun did use his power to capture his attention in the first place. He’s always kind of spoiled the younger and it wouldn’t make any sense to stop now.

“What’s wrong?” Yixing asks and Sehun immediately peers up.

“Do you hate me?” Sehun’s words confuse Yixing. He’s never hated the wind bearer. If he’s being honest, he’s never hated anyone truly. Generally, Yixing kept his slight distance from people simply because he’d been working the whole time and his constant quest for self improvement and practice had left him with very little time to socialise. Add that to the fact that healing is one of the rarer abilities, as soon as he’d graduated he’d been sent away. All in all, it was easier to constantly be on the move when you didn’t feel like you were leaving people behind all the time. But he and Sehun know each other all too well.

“No, of course I don’t hate you. Why did you think I hated you?” Yixing does his best to reassure Sehun and continue to eat his food. The heavy pout still clings to Sehun’s lips though.

“Well, Chanyeol ignored me earlier, Junmyeon told me to go bother someone else and you just recoiled like someone had spat in your food when I tried to get your attention. I thought I’d done something to make you all hate me.” Trailing off at the end, Sehun directs his gaze down at his food. It’s a weird mixture of things he’s chosen, clearly he wasn’t paying that much attention to what he was grabbing. Yixing sighs as he sets down his cutlery.

“Sehun, you know what Chanyeol is like, he probably didn’t even hear what you were saying, especially if he’d been using his ability. Junmyeon is likely worked to the bone trying to manage the sheer quantity of people they’ve pulled in from our class here and balancing all the rumours about this being the start of the true advancement of the darkness.” Pausing, Yixing gathers his breath. “And the reason I flinched is because you went for my neck and you know I’m ticklish there.”

Explanation done, Yixing raises his eyebrows at Sehun before resuming eating his meal. Sehun seems placated by Yixing’s words if nothing else and begins to eat as well. A companionable silence falls over them both as they focus on their food. The silence is abruptly shattered by the sound of another tray hitting their table.

The owner of the tray turns out to be Jongin, yet another member of their former class. A small apprehension settles over Yixing. His class is well known for being some of the strongest power bearers currently active. Something must be truly wrong this time if they’ve called in this many highly powered bearers. Jongin looks shattered and the familiar, weird scent of charcoal and gunpowder clings to him. Whenever Jongin had used his ability, the smell followed him. Yixing had gotten used to it pretty quickly though, seeing as Jongin and he also worked together a lot.

It’s clear Jongin had prioritised food over his bath as he looks ragged. Knowing teleporting so much takes it out of him, Yixing lightly lays his hand over Jongin’s own. It’s not quite healing, just a small transfer of energy. Jongin must appreciate the gesture given the smile he throws Yixing’s way right before viciously digging into his food, manners be damned.

“Gods, slow down or else you’ll choke,” Sehun nearly demands, pushing his food off to the side and sitting up straight. “No one wants to see you eat like a pig.”

Jongin instantly stops, clearing his throat with a swig of his cider and a sly grin across his lips. _Oh boy._ And Yixing thought they wouldn’t start some petty argument for once. At least Sehun isn’t going to think Jongin is ignoring him. Jognin then sucks on his teeth and slumps over, crossing his arms. Yixing sighs over his peaceful dinner being ruined.

“Got a problem with me _again,_ Oh Sehun?” Jongin questions and Yixing’s sure he’d prop his feet upon the table if there was room enough for it; it’s always part of his ‘go-to’ posture when these disagreements pop up.

Sehun clears his throat and even sits up even straighter than before. “I don’t have a problem with you, just your habits. If you didn’t act like a slob most of the time then there wouldn’t be any issues,” Sehun answers, voice clear and far more proper than it was a little earlier.

“See, you always get all snooty any time you have a problem with me,” Jongin points out before he starts a mocking, “ _‘Your robes aren’t on correctly,’ ‘You’re too slouched over,’ ‘That’s not how you pronounce that.’_ I could go on. You do nothing but criticize me and play it off as helping a classmate.” He then takes another drink of his cider and burps loudly. Yixing knows it’s just to annoy Sehun and it must work when the wind bearer grimaces before his eyes hit the back of his head.

“But _I am_ helping you because we’re in the same class.”

“Are we really?” he retorts and resumes his meal in the same messy manner.

Sehun frowns then parts his lips to speak, but remains silent. He doesn’t touch his food, opting to sit there quietly.

Yixing would jump in, try to help them resolve this, but he and everyone else from their class has done enough of that over the years and it never stops. For them two to have known each other for so long, it seems like their differences would have been hammered out considering they worked well together when they used to have missions together. But that’s probably hard to do when one of them comes from decently wealthy, _strict_ bearer parents and the other is the first magic user from parents of humble means. And Yixing knows Sehun means well, but he could at least attempt to be less forceful when it comes to how magic wielders are expected to carry themselves. Yeah, Jongin could probably use a class or two in etiquette, but then he really wouldn’t be the cute Jongin he adores.

So Yixing sits and listens to Jongin ramble about how draining his mission was. Sehun quietly seethes at every slight flaw Jongin displays but thankfully, he doesn't voice any of them aloud anymore. Doing his duty as a good senior, Yixing diligently sits through Jongin’s explanation until something the younger says suddenly snaps him to full attention.

“Sorry, Jongin, can you repeat that?” Yixing interrupts before Jongin mentions something else and loses his train of thought. Realising that Yixing seems quite serious, Sehun tunes in and Jongin clears his throat.

Making sure he’s not chewing through food this time, Jongin repeats his statement, “I said, it felt a lot harder to make the jumps this time. Usually, you just have to make sure the door stays open at both ends and that it’s ok for everyone to pass through.” He takes a quick sip of his cider and continues, “It’s easy for us to jump through as we can warp to fit through smaller gaps but to bring people with us, we have to keep the gate wide open. But this time it felt like something wanted to keep the people I was evacuating there.”

“But you were helping mostly healthy people, right? I saw two people jump back to the site from the med bay and neither of them were you.” A small furrow appears between Yixing’s eyebrows. That familiar sinking feeling settles in his gut.

“Oh yeah, the people were all ok so it wasn’t like I had to be careful or anything. The jumps just felt a bit draggy. Like I was trying to jump with sandbags tied around my ankles. Everyone we got out is set up safe at the camp though if you need to see them.” Jongin’s words tie the final links together in Yixing’s mind. Even if he’s wrong, he knows they need to investigate this. He’s not looking forward to what comes next.

“Sehun,” Yixing turns to their youngest companion who startles a little at being mentioned. “Go and find Junmyeon. Bring him here and tell him it’s urgent.” 

“What if he’s busy?” Sehun asks, despite already moving to stand. It’s easy to see the importance of this.

“Tell him I sent you and that I think it could be like last September. If he still hesitates, you’re resourceful, think of something to get him here.” That seems good enough for Sehun who immediately sets off on his search. “Jongin, do you reckon you’ll have the strength to jump a few of us to the evacuee camp?”

Jongin seems to consider Yixing’s words before nodding.

“If I finish up my food, I should be good in about thirty minutes. How many people are you thinking?” Jongin’s own mood has grown sombre in the face of Yixing’s seriousness.

“No more than ten.” Yixing collects his plates as he climbs to his feet.

“Oh, ok, yeah. Where are you going?” Looking up from his place still sitting at the table, Jongin watches as Yixing sighs.

“I’m going to go and find Baekhyun. If this is what I think it is, we’re going to need a light bearer.” Even if he and Baekhyun don’t necessarily get along, he is the only light bearer he’d trust with his life. “Meet you back here soon.”

Yixing quickly heads back in the direction of the baths, glancing into other rooms along the way, hoping Baekhyun will appear. He doesn’t find Baekhyun in any of them and when Yixing reaches his destination, he’s nowhere to be seen. _Where could he be?_ Yixing lets out a groan of frustration as he exits the baths. He would have passed Baekhyun if he were in the dining hall and there’s no reason for him to be in the medical wards. There are the common areas but he doesn’t recall Baekhyun liking to wander them much either, always hearing about him exploring elsewhere.

When Yixing is ready to forget about Baekhyun for now, he crashes into someone—Jongdae he realizes—and helps him off the ground as soon as he has picked himself up.

“Whoa, lost in thought there?” Jongdae asks, dusting off his robes. “I couldn’t avoid you.”

“Sorry,” Yixing apologizes and then immediately asks, “Where did Baekhyun go?”

“You’re actually looking for Baekhyun?” Jongdae questions, brow raised. “Thought you two were, um, on shaky terms?”

“We’re not anything,” he quickly dismisses. “Do you know where he went or not? This is important and—actually you need to meet Jongin in the cafeteria. We’ll need you too.” Jongdae is an ace in lightning wielding so having him in the know may help too. “So, Baekhyun?”

“Is everything okay?”

“Nevermind that,” Yixing huffs, voice slightly raised. “I’ll explain everything later, but where is Baekhyun?”

Jongdae shrugs. “Said he was going down to the markets, but you know him.”

“Okay. Just go meet Jongin in the dining hall and I’ll see you soon.”

Yixing doesn’t wait for Jongdae to utter another word that might distract him and hurriedly leaves Jongdae’s side. Baekhyun shouldn’t be too far ahead; Yixing wasn’t eating for that long and the markets are close enough to travel to by foot. He makes his way out of the station grounds to take the back dirt path through the fields to get to the markets. Jongin had shown him the shortcut once and he’s sure Baekhyun knows of it too.

It’s a few minutes shy of fifteen before Yixing is able to cut through a back alley of the markets and force his way into the crowded streets, no sign of Baekhyun or any magic wielder at first sight. Yixing scratches his cheek, thinking of possible places Baekhyun could have gone. He doesn’t know him too well, but knows that Baekhyun has an interest in small trinkets and trying new foods from street vendors from class trips, but those exist by the dozens. _Maybe I should have brought someone with me to narrow it down._ Yixing lets out a tiny huff before he feels himself being pushed along the street, passerby forcing him to walk with them instead of stand there like a log.

It reminds him of why he prefers to come to the market when it’s less busy. All the news about the recent attack has the area thrumming with activity which is likely why Baekhyun had chosen to skip the dining hall and find something within the market. It’s hot and sweaty in the crowd compared to the relative coolness of the base and Yixing can feel the closeness acutely. Letting the flow of people sweep him along, Yixing keeps his eyes peeled for any sign of Baekhyun. However, it is not long before Yixing reaches his limit and slips into a quieter side street, instead of the main one.

Weaving around the fewer patrons and down the row, Yixing’s eye is caught by a jewelry store that he has frequented before. It’s not rare that Yixing loses odd bits of his jewelry in the rush of his work and the easiest place to replace any of them cheaply is at the markets. Located on a slight incline, going to his favorite jeweler would help him see over the crowd for a better view to find Baekhyun. Yixing winds over to the stall and smiles when Joy, the girl behind the counter, greets him. She immediately notices his barbell is missing and brings over a few replacements. Before he can even say he isn’t shopping today, Joy is already opening her mouth.

“You’re probably best going with this one.” Joy offers him a plain, black, metallic option. Not to be rude, Yixing decides it’s as good an opportunity as any to replace the one he lost. “It’s the least likely to escape when you’re having to work and I know you don’t really go in for flashy colours.”

Glancing down at his simple black robes and remembering the relative simpleness of his other earrings, Yixing smiles at being caught. “This will work great, thank you.” Yixing fishes out a few coins to pay, but Joy vehemently denies the payment.

“Last time you were here, you saved one of my best friends. That is payment enough. Here, let me sort it for you.” Knowing better than to protest, Yixing turns his head to let Joy settle the earring into place. Wishing Joy would hurry while she works, Yixing hears his name shouted from the direction he isn’t looking.

“Yixing!” Once Joy finishes, he turns to look at the caller. A fresh faced Baekhyun waves as he slips around the few people in the street and makes his way over to him. “I thought you said you weren’t coming to the market, that it was time to work.”

Baekhyun pouts, evidently upset that Yixing had avoided his invitation and gone to the market anyway.

“I came here looking for you.” The simple sentence from Yixing has Baekhyun’s eyes widening and an unbidden flush lightly tints his cheeks.

“Well, why didn’t you just say that in the baths earlier?” Baekhyun loops an arm through Yixing’s and steers him back towards the main street. Yixing quickly drops a nod to Joy who smiles her goodbye. “There’s no need to play hard to get with me, you know?”

“I know, it’s an emergency.” There must be something in his tone as Baekhyun halts them with people adjusting to flow around them. “We need to head back _now._ ”

“E—emergency?” Baekhyun stutters through. Yixing tries to get them moving, but Baekhyun doesn’t budge. “What do you mean emergency?” he then questions with a pout. “It hasn’t been _that_ long since I saw you in the baths, so what happened?”

“I’ll explain everything when we meet up with the others.” Yixing wordlessly unlinks their arms to attempt to tug Baekhyun by the wrist back in the direction of the base, but Baekhyun still refuses to move.

“You can’t say something like that and not expect me to be curious.”

“We don’t have time, Baekhyun. This is important and I don’t want to have to explain things twice, so let’s go.”

Baekhyun groans and his frown seems to grow even deeper, but he allows himself to be pulled forward, much to Yixing’s relief. “You better not be lying.” The words are mumbled yet loud enough for Yixing to catch them.

“When have I ever been known to lie?”

“Then tell me what it is. It’s making me scared not knowing what you’re dragging me into when you’re all serious,” Baekhyun admits, making Yixing pause when they reach the side street that leads back to base.

 _Scared?_ Yixing has always known Baekhyun to be fearless, ready to take on any challenge that comes his way, so it comes as a surprise when he really takes a good look at Baekhyun to see him biting down on his bottom lip as his eyes point toward the ground.

“You’re the best we have though,” Yixing points out, making Baekhyun grin a little. “Why would you be scared?”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “Because, ideas are now running through my head and what if this is really it? The prophecy, I mean. I don’t think you’d act like this otherwise. It’s a bit weird when you’re the one reaching out between us.” He shakes his wrist free to loop their arms together once more before beginning their walk again. Now that things are a little more calm, he doesn’t necessarily need the contact, but maybe it brings Baekhyun some form of comfort and lets their arms stay linked. “Since we were kids, they’ve drilled it in our heads that this was going to be hard; the darkness is supposed to be _the_ thing we all have to come together for. Plus everything’s been a lot harder to keep under control lately. I’ve never had to help so many people at once in my life. I don’t think you’d be rushing me off from the markets if it wasn’t darkness related.”

Yixing wonders where all the confidence from earlier went when Baekhyun had claimed this could all be a false alarm. He makes a mental note to make some calming tea if they have time later. Baekhyun probably won’t be the only one who needs it.

“What I want to tell everyone, it does relate to the darkness, yes, but we’re a team, right?” Baekhyun hums. “Then we’ll be okay; we’ll all have each other to depend on.”

With their arms linked, Yixing feels an old memory tugging at the back of his head. Something about the last time they had been like this.

  
  


_After eight hours of travel, Yixing had no thoughts except how fast he could make it to the base they were to work from. He felt the grime of his journey against his skin and adjusted his plan to involve bathing before he found whatever bed they had put him up in. It was a very small village that had been attacked this time, no more than twenty injuries that were being held by regular medicine before Yixing could arrive to root out the darkness embedded in them. A small, curious thought popped up as to who the light bearer might have been. Apparently, the new class was fresh out of graduation and this was a good opportunity for them to practice. Unfortunately, like most years, there were no young healers so Yixing had been called himself._

_He was jerked out of his musings by an arm linking with his own. Suddenly on the defensive, Yixing felt his gift spike to life, red and dangerous. But before he acted, he forced himself to slow down and look at who had grabbed him. It was as if someone had poured ice into his gift when he recognised the face. Baekhyun, grinned as if Yixing wasn’t about to skewer him, had much blonder hair, but it was definitely still him. There were slight dark circles beneath his eyes that weren’t normally there. It betrayed the hard work he’d been doing here and how he’d likely been overworked._

_Before he thought better of it, Yixing’s bare hand folded over Baekhyun’s that held his arm and Yixing searched through Baekhyun for a reason for his run down appearance. The blond in his hair appeared to be from overexposure of his gift, there was little Yixing could have done to change it but he did run a soothing wave of energy through Baekhyun’s scalp in an effort to ease it in the future. There was a tension to Baekhyun’s muscles, especially the tiny ones around his eyes and Yixing let the energy drift lower and push calm through the muscles. He felt Baekhyun melt against him a little and drew back, content that he had helped even a little bit._

_“If I knew meeting you came with a perk like this, I’d force them to assign me to all your missions.” Baekhyun practically draped himself over Yixing who did his best to simply keep moving towards the base._

_“You’re tired and I can take a bit of that away. I would do it for anyone on the team. I’m sorry I can’t do more but I don’t know how badly injured the civilians are.” Yixing’s words had that same tone of politeness he always held around Baekhyun._

_“You can relax, it’s not the big day yet. The darkness retreated the second Chanyeol and I arrived.” Baekhyun was jovial, convinced that the prophecy was still far off. “Want to get ice cream when we get back? I’ll buy as a small thanks.”_

_Yixing shook his head. “My work isn’t done. The villagers still need tending to.”_

_“After?”_

_“You really don’t need to thank me. It’s my job to help you.”_

_“Hey,” Baekhyun whined. “We’re classmates. I should be more than just_ a job. _” He stopped draping himself over Yixing, but continued to keep their arms attached. Baekhyun didn’t say anything more, making Yixing take small glances at the light bearer every time he thought he heard Baekhyun grumble something about knowing each other for far too long. It was kind of cute and Yixing couldn’t help but notice the slope of Baekhyun’s lips, the way his eyes drooped, or the moles that dotted his face. It was unfair that Baekhyun was born so gifted_ and _handsome, but he shouldn't have been having these thoughts in the first place._

_Work is most important._

  
  


Yixing takes a deep breath; this is not the time to reminisce. There’s work to be done and they need to hurry back to base. But Yixing can’t help but notice that Baekhyun still seems on edge. _A few minutes wouldn’t hurt._ Yixing stops them in their tracks, causing Baekhyun to tilt his head.

“Yixing?” Baekhyun questions, even poking his cheek when he steps in front of him. “Why’d you stop? You said we were in a rush.”

Like he did back then, Yixing wordlessly places his palm over Baekhyun’s hand and sends a calming wave of energy throughout Baekhyun’s body. Baekhyun’s mouth forms into a small ‘o’ shape before he’s tumbling into Yixing’s embrace. Baekhyun snuggles against him as Yixing continues to ease Baekhyun’s mind with his energy, even if only for a short while. It’s a little awkward being in this position, but he can’t have one of their strongest having his mind all jittery.

 _It isn’t_ so _bad._

“You need to warn me before you do that,” Baekhyun laughs as he slowly picks himself upright, but doesn’t let go of Yixing. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Yixing gradually rescinds his energy until it comes to a complete stop and he’s removing himself from Baekhyun, only to have him re-hook them by the arms. “Let’s go?”

“Yeah.”

The walk back to base is quiet, both are clearly lost in their thoughts. Yixing is trying to run through a mental list of everyone who is on base at the moment. Himself and Baekhyun are obvious; it’s difficult to forget about something physically hanging from him. Sehun and Jongin were squabbling in the canteen so he could call on both of them if Sehun doesn’t get distracted trying to find Junmyeon for him. Junmyeon seems to be heading something and Jongdae was still wandering around the baths so he must be there as well if he didn’t make it to the dining hall yet. It’s not a bad team but Yixing would prefer it if they had a few more people there. He runs through the people in his class that he would trust with this kind of problem.

Immediately springing to mind is Minseok. One of the top of their class, Minseok has soared to a level of infamy once he graduated. His control over his ice ability is pretty unrivalled but the denial of a position of authority had been one of the fastest rumours to spread through the ranks. It had been a surprise but generally was now accepted without any second glance. Typically, Minseok worked closely with Junmyeon and if they planned to send them on another mission, Yixing has high hopes that he’ll be somewhere on base.

Thinking back on his conversation with Sehun and Jongin, he remembers Sehun mentioning Chanyeol which is somewhat comforting. A highly energetic fire wielder, Chanyeol would definitely be a good asset in the fight. An added bonus is that wherever Chanyeol goes, Kyungsoo usually goes with him. He’s a perfect ground for any of the users that tend to go a little overboard and Chanyeol’s volatile nature is balanced well by Kyungsoo’s practicality.

He’s jerked from his thoughts by Baekhyun stopping. They’re at the main doors of the base. Doors which stand very firmly closed.

“That’s weird,” Baekhyun tilts his head as he slowly speaks. “They never close the main doors usually. So that wielders and visitors can come and go at any time, you know? Why are they closed now?”

Energy prickles over both their skin and they share a glance. Baekhyun’s eyes alight with the gold that signals his energy is ready to use and Yixing feels his aura kick in. The flair of the hostile nature of his gift accompanies his wariness and he readies himself to fight.

“Is there another way in, near here? You’ve worked from this base more than me.” Yixing’s words are practical, the usual gentle nature to his tone has vanished.

“Yeah, follow me.” The familiar lilt to Baekhyun’s voice is also gone, a sign that he’s also purely focused on the fight. He moves quickly, not bothering to check that Yixing is following, knowing that they’re in sync. Whilst they haven’t fought together just the two of them, they’re both aware of how the other works and can adjust accordingly. Baekhyun leads them around the wall until a small portion of it discolours. Leaning his shoulder against the stones, Baekhyun presses his weight against the wall and it swings open. Cool air rushes to meet them but they don’t pause to appreciate it. Pressing close through the small passage, they both strain to hear any sounds of commotion from in front of them. When they reach the end, Baekhyun slides away a panel and reveals a store cupboard behind it. Slipping out of the passage, Yixing presses an ear to the cupboards door. Satisfied he can’t hear anything, Yixing swings open the door.

He’s greeted by silence and a little further down the corridor, two people lay flat against the stones. Racing towards them with Baekhyun hot on his heels, Yixing pushes his energy out in front of himself. It sweeps over the two bodies, thankfully finding a pulse. Assessing them quickly, he realises that they’re both in a deep sleep.

 _What happened?_ He kneels on the ground and takes a quick peek up at his surroundings; seeing no one else in sight has his stomach dropping. It’s eerily quiet so he focuses on trying to pull one of the wielders back into consciousness. Maybe they can figure out what happened—or maybe not. _It’s not working._ Something that usually takes hardly any effort is having zero effect or rather _something_ is blocking him from doing so. He tries a few more times to wake them both, but it’s fruitless. Yixing swallows hard.

“I can’t do it,” Yixing mumbles to himself more than anything, but it still causes Baekhyun to let down his guard for a split second when he peers down at Yixing.

“What do you mean?” Baekhyun asks.

“Something is—I can’t wake them,” Yixing answers as he stands. There isn’t any internal damage among either, just a few cuts and bruises on the surface, so he leaves them be and starts moving in search of others. “It’s like I was being stopped; like at a door I couldn’t open.”

Baekhyun curses under his breath before he takes over and leads them down silent halls to the medical rooms. They both still at the entrance, finding healers either on the ground or slumped over on a bed as if they had been knocked unconscious during a struggle. When they cautiously step in further, Yixing examines the healers at a glance—minor cuts, a bit bruised, a little bit of blood; it’s the same as the two from the hall. Yixing knows there wasn’t much of a fight from how minor their injuries are, even coupled with broken glass vials and sheets scattered about. He sends his energy throughout the nearest healer and finds nothing except for the fact that he can’t wake them. He doesn’t bother checking the rest, knowing they’re in the same state. Yixing needs to save his energy.

Next, Yixing eyes over the patients, noting that they seem to be in the same state he left them in. He walks over to one specific patient, a fire user he remembers with the worst injuries of them all.

“Notice anything different?” Baekhyun questions as Yixing uses his energy on the fire user and tries to pull them from their deep sleep. “Bodies on the floor, aside.”

“No,” Yixing sighs. “And I can’t reach this one either. I’d assume the rest are the same.”

“Will they be okay if we just leave them here?” Baekhyun asks as he is already walking out of the room.

“They should be fine.” Yixing begins to follow. “I just can’t reach them, but they don’t feel like they’re in any danger. The patients were most likely put under whatever spell after the darkness knocked the healers out.”

“Still confident this is darkness related?”

“One hundred percent. I’ve never come across it knocking people out cold and not being able to reach it to pull it out, but it’s too much of a coincidence with everything that’s happened lately.” It brings Yixing back to Jongin’s story earlier and how teleporting was somewhat of a struggle. He’s sure if the darkness had taken over completely, Jongin would have been fast asleep and unable to wake too. “We should hurry and try to find others that will hopefully be awake to help us.”

“Let’s head to the dining hall. Maybe someone slipped under a table and escaped.”

With a shared nod, they drop back into silence as they trace the familiar halls towards the dining hall. More unconscious bodies litter the path they take and each time they encounter some, Yixing has to force himself to restrain his ability. It feels unbelievably wrong to not be able to help the people they come across. He settles for moving them into more comfortable positions likely out of the way should anyone rush down the halls. The first few times he pauses to do this, Baekhyun keeps moving, clearly eager to find anyone else awake, only stopping when he notices Yixing is no longer beside him. By the third person though, Baekhyun wordlessly helps Yixing move them. Both ignore the way their hands shake with the tension of having their abilities so close to the surface.

As they grow close to the dining halls, Yixing reaches out his energy again. Flinching slightly at the quantity of people, Yixing forces himself to calmly sweep. A sharp spike of energy flashes into his mind and Yixing gasps aloud. Baekhyun is immediately turning to him, hands on his upper arms, eyes searching Yixing’s face.

“Someone inside is awake, maybe more than one someone.” Yixing stutters the words, his gift withdrawn back to himself. Baekhyun’s hands tighten around his arms as their gazes meet. They’ve never fought directly together outside of the occasional class or training exercise back when they were simply learning their abilities but they’re both capable fighters in their own right. Withdrawing his hands, Baekhyun softly lights his fingertips. It’s a universal sign that the light bearer is prepared for this to get messy. Yixing feels his own gift morph in response. The familiar cool sensation of his gift is gone, a razor edge replacing it. Despite it being some time since Yixing has had to actively weaponise his gift, it comes back to him like a second skin.

Baekhyun moves forward, dulling one hand as he rests it against the door of the cafeteria. As quietly as he can, Baekhyun slowly eases open the door. Thankfully, nothing appears to be blocking it and it inches open soundlessly. Once there’s enough space to peer through, Baekhyun presses his eye against the space. All he can see is people slumped over the tables or the floor, some directly into the food they’d been eating. Content to keep going, Baekhyun puts more force against the door. As he’s about to make enough space to slip through, the door is roughly pulled all the way open.

Yixing hauls Baekhyun backwards, his gift flaring towards the now open door. The energy rips forward and there’s muffled cursing as whoever he’d attacked gets themselves out of the way. Suddenly his vision goes white as Baekhyun throws forward his own wave of light. It’s Yixing’s turn to be manhandled as Baekhyun, unaffected by the light, forces them through the doorway.

“Yixing! Baekhyun! Stop! It’s us!” Sehun’s familiar voice breaks through to them both.

Tension eases out of Yixing as both Sehun and Jongin come into view, defensive stance from all four men slowly relaxing into something a little less guarded yet still alert.

“Fuck, you could have killed us,” Sehun whines. Yixing instantly walks over to the younger to ease him to sit on the ground. Yixing then cards his fingers through Sehun’s hair, sending short bursts of energy throughout him when he notices Sehun seems a bit fatigued as well. It’s a little worrying when Sehun seemed so full of life earlier. “First we were attacked by the enemy and now friends too.”

“Stop being dramatic,” Baekhyun comments as he removes Yixing’s hand from Sehun’s head. Yixing squints—he wasn’t done yet. “You need to save your energy; he’ll be alright.”

Baekhyun does have a point, Yixing figures, but he could have helped Sehun just a little more when it seems like they’re going to need as much help as they can get. He needs everyone to be near their best. “So what happened?”

“It wasn’t long at all after you left,” Jongin begins to explain. “I was finishing up with dinner and was going to find the others like you asked, but then Sehun came back saying something about waiting for me since he didn’t want to be alone. Then Jongdae came to us saying you asked him to find me. He was just here for a few minutes before—” He pauses, brow furrowing, and then continues, “We were attacked by—” Jongin stutters through but takes a deep breath before continuing, “I think it was the darkness that attacked, like the same situation from the villages earlier. Everyone started to—it was like everyone was slowly becoming possessed and they started fighting us—each other.” Jongin stops speaking.

“Then what happened? How did you not get infected with it?” Yixing asks.

“Jongin poofed us out of here to the roof. It was eerily calm up there,” Sehun answers. “Well, first he started complaining about a headache and needing to get out. He just grabbed me and Jongdae and then we were on the roof.”

“And where’s Jongdae? I don’t see him anywhere,” Baekhyun comments. Yixing glances around and doesn’t see his body in sight either.

“Oh, he went to go check to see if anyone else was still awake. We didn’t feel all that great either so we just stayed up there until the screaming and fighting stopped.”

Silence falls over them and Yixing begins to move the unconscious bodies around. Baekhyun follows his lead and soon all four of them are wiping blood or food from faces and setting people into more comfortable positions. Yixing has been told of the prophecy since childhood and yet it still doesn’t seem real that it might be really happening. He never imagined fighting the darkness with such little help and prays that whoever is still awake and alert is enough to get them through this.

Just as Yixing is settling the last body against a wall, quiet footsteps in the distance grow louder until the dining hall door is being pushed open.

Exhaustion pulls at his limbs but Yixing forces it away as he snaps back into full alert. He’s not alone in going on the defensive as both Baekhyun and Sehun summon their gifts up to the forefront. Yixing knows they won’t be able to put up that much of a fight, himself and Baekhyun are running pretty low on energy from earlier and Jongin has clearly been throwing himself into more jumps than usual.

The scent of petrichor fills the air around them and Yixing’s muscles sag as he recognises the reason for it. He’d worked with Jongdae and Junmyeon as a trio in the past and whenever the two had combined their abilities, the strong scent of earth, water and electricity was always present. His hands find a chair and Yixing lets himself lower into it. Baekhyun and Sehun relax as Yixing does, Baekhyun moving a little closer to Yixing as if worried by his sudden tiredness.

When Yixing focuses on the newcomers, he’s greeted by Junmyeon, Minseok and Jongdae standing in the doorway.

“I did try to warn you that just barging in here was a good way to have Yixing impale you, but you never listen, do you Jongdae?” Junmyeon seems to have been stretched too thin too but there’s no trace of the darkness when Yixing brushes over them. Now truly needing his rest, Yixing lets the others talk around him rather than engage as much.

“Yixing knows us, he wouldn’t have actually done it.” Jongdae shrugs off Junmyeon’s words effortlessly, seemingly ignoring that Junmyeon is technically a higher rank. His attention swivels back to Yixing and Baekhyun. “I found Junmyeon and Minseok in the main office, fighting off five other team leaders. I don’t know if they were strictly winning but we were lucky when suddenly everyone collapsed. My head was ringing afterwards but whatever the darkness is doing to them, it would appear that it can’t seem to get to us.”

Jongdae’s confidence is a little bit infectious and Yixing allows himself to briefly revel in it before grounding himself again. From his chair, he studies Junmyeon and Minseok and finds them to be carefully hiding their injuries. Realising what they’re doing, Yixing makes a snap decision.

“Let’s hole out for the moment, get healed and get some rest. We’re all running on empty and even if there’s something stopping the darkness from getting to us, we won’t be able to do anything about it like we are now.” He pushes himself to his feet, taking care not to wobble. Junmyeon nods his agreement to Yixing’s sentiment and leads them away from the cafeteria. As they walk, the corridors and bodies blur together a little, and Yixing stumbles into Baekhyun when they stop. Mumbling a sorry, Yixing steps back. Baekhyun doesn’t let him away that easily though, catching him and pressing a hand to his forehead. A warm sensation bleeds into Yixing, the energy Baekhyun gifting him soothing the rough edges of his mind.

Yixing’s heard rumors of Baekhyun being able to give some of his energy to others akin to what healers do, but experiencing it first hand feels unlike anything else. It’s similar when compared to a healer, but there’s an odd, almost overwhelming feeling of _warmth_ that flows throughout his body that his mind is finding hard to comprehend.

Yixing nearly molds himself into Baekhyun’s touch until he realizes just what he was about to do. _Get a hold of yourself. You’re tired and you and Baekhyun_ aren’t _close enough to do something like that._ Well, at least on Yixing’s end he’s not overly touchy. And yet, Baekhyun tugs Yixing closer anyway as the seconds tick and a tiny smile spreads across his face.

“I know you’re exhausted,” Baekhyun calmly states. “You can always lean on me whenever.” The energy flow stops and Baekhyun removes his hand and loops their arms together. “I’ll just make sure you don’t fall on your face for now.”

“Thanks,” is the only thing Yixing can manage to say. Yixing looks over to Sehun who giggles. “Why are you laughing?”

“Oh nothing,” Sehun sing songs before whispering into Yixing’s ear, “I thought you and Baekhyun weren’t that close? You used to avoid him at all costs and now you’re holding hands.”

Suddenly, Yixing feels wide awake. “Our arms are simply looped,” Yixing quietly corrects and hopes Sehun stops speaking for how. Under normal circumstances, Yixing knows he’d try to back out of anything. He just needs rest. “Why’d we stop anyway?” he asks a bit louder.

“Junmyeon’s checking that room,” Sehun informs. “Said something about finding a decently empty one to rest in while you were _‘having a moment’_ with Baekhyun.”

Yixing’s eyes hit the back of his head as Baekhyun snickers beside him. He ignores Sehun’s comment as they move forward, even when the younger whines a quiet _‘say something back’_ and tugs on Yixing’s robes. After checking what feels like one too many rooms, their walking soon comes to a halt once more and they stop in front of one of the more secluded lounge rooms. Minseok and Junmyeon carry the few bodies that remain inside into the hall and decide it’s a good place to rest for now.

Minseok and Junmyeon naturally take the single sofa seats and despite their bickering from earlier, Sehun and Jongin settle onto the two-seater couch. All that’s left are two three-seater couches and of course Jongdae would flop onto one of them, spreading his entire body across it. Wordlessly, Baekhyun is already tugging them to the free couch and forcing them to sit, arms still linked. Just as Yixing is about to free himself from Baekhyun, the light bearer snuggles into his side and shuts his eyes. Yixing swallows hard and tries to think of a way out until he remembers he wanted to make calming tea and the lounge should have the needed herbs.

Everyone else seems content to pretend that Yixing isn’t pleading for their help with his eyes, so Yixing knows he’s on his own with this one. Baekhyun’s grip isn’t exactly tight but he’s managed to entwine himself so that Yixing will definitely disturb him if he tries to move. Trying to quell the sensitivity of his neck as Baekhyun’s breath ghosts against it, Yixing waits until Baekhyun naturally falls asleep. Keeping his expression carefully schooled, he ghosts out his sensitivity around the room. Junmyeon and Minseok have a lot of light injuries, if Yixing was operating at a normal level of energy they would be effortless to heal. Jongdae has the typical singes that come with manipulating lightning, but he’s relatively unhurt. The two youngest, stubbornly sitting with enough space between them so they’re not touching, just read as tired. And then there is Baekhyun, who appears to be as wiped out as Yixing himself is.

Knowing his limits, Yixing restrains his natural response to help and instead, slowly eases Baekhyun into a more comfortable position on the couch. Baekhyun makes a small noise of protest but settles back down quickly and it lets Yixing finally slip out from beneath him and over to the small kitchen. It’s through an arch and it appears untouched by the events from earlier. A quick search yields the tea Yixing had been searching for and he brews enough for everyone to drink their fill. The sound of the kettle must have drawn some attention as Minseok appears by his side. They work quietly, in sync, as they sort out the tea. They’ve worked together countless times before and it’s easy to fall into a rhythm of quiet comradery.

After a tiny taste test, Yixing declares the tea ready and they distribute the mugs and cups to everyone. It’s a little upsetting for Yixing to have to wake Baekhyun when he obviously could use the sleep, but the tea has plenty of benefits that he doesn’t want Baekhyun to miss out on. With a few gentle shakes, he rouses Baekhyun from his light sleep. Bleary eyed and confused, Baekhyun rubs at his face like a child. Yixing has to catch himself before his indulgent smile grows too big and he schools it back into neutral. Baekhyun’s thank you is groggy, but his smile is warm and Yixing feels content knowing that everyone will soon be feeling better. He collects his own mug and sinks back into the space beside Baekhyun, who is thankfully, too occupied with his tea to cling back onto him.

It’s quiet for a time, everyone getting back to normal, but it’s not long before quiet conversation begins to ripple through everyone. The topic stays clear of anything serious, no one willing to breach it and a comfortable feeling settles over them. It’s shattered when they hear the knocking at the door. No one responds, everyone slow to become alert.

The relief is palpable when Chanyeol’s head sticks through the gap.

“Oh my god,” Chanyeol beams. “Thank god.” He pushes the door open far enough to slip inside and Yixing grins when he sees Kyungsoo appear just behind him. “We thought we’d have to look around forever before finding anyone else still conscious.” Kyungsoo shuts the door behind them and grabs Chanyeol’s hand to move them further into the lounge. “Do you know how many bodies we’ve had to set aside and step over?” he states as he and Kyungsoo settle next to Jongdae, Yixing thankful for Chanyeol’s light tone and exaggerated hand movements.

“How’d you think to come this way?” Jongdae asks. “It’s usually pretty empty over here.”

“We heard voices and decided to check this room out,” Kyungsoo informs as he scoots a little closer to Chanyeol until their arms touch. Chanyeol opens his mouth to speak until he glances Kyungsoo’s way and grins, wrapping his arm snuggly around Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

“He heard _vibrations_ coming from this direction. We were in the library,” Chanyeol adds thoughtfully, “and just chilled there until everything seemed okay again. I think I accidentally knocked someone out, but they seemed fine. I didn’t burn them.” His voice lowers as he continues, “It feels wrong fighting someone who’s supposed to be our teammate.”

“It’s okay,” Yixing tries to comfort when Chanyeol’s face sullens. “I can check them out when we have time later.” Everyone minus Baekhyun and Jongin nod in agreement, the other two too focused on their tea. He then senses out Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, feeling high anxiety in them both. At least they’re physically okay, nearly in perfect condition. “Do you want me to make you a cup of tea? There’s some still in the pot.”

“Thanks.”

Yixing sets his mug down on a nearby table and stands, eyeing the way Kyungsoo comfortingly rubs over Chanyeol’s leg, before heading back to the kitchen. He wonders if it’s a blessing or curse that they’re nearly always paired together on missions. It’s already stressful enough to worry over one’s self; he doesn’t want to imagine what the battlefield would be like to have a lover at his side. He pushes the thought aside, looking through the cabinets until he spots the passionflower petals he saw earlier and grabs them and two mugs. He adds a few petals to the cups and he knows it’ll be a bit sweeter, but Kyungsoo and Chanyeol need as much tension as possible eased out of their bodies. When he returns with their tea, Chanyeol gives him a wide grin and Kyungsoo matches in gratitude with a tiny smile.

Seeing that Baekhyun has taken up most of the space on the couch, tea now gone and lying down, Yixing opts to sit on the floor by Sehun and leans against the younger’s legs. It isn’t the most ideal position, but at least he gets to shut his eyes for a moment and let the conversation around some past mission drown out his thoughts surrounding his, _everyone’s_ future.

He only realises he had drifted off after Junmyeon gently shakes him back awake. The combination of sleep and the tea has his energy almost back to the norm. Seeing everyone else in the room sleeping as well, he gently pulls Junmyeon towards the kitchen. Junmyeon wordlessly follows, it’ll be easier to talk with some distance. After some small encouragement, Yixing has Junmyeon sitting on one of the counters as he works his energy into healing the bruises and small cuts that still decorate Junmyeon’s skin. Knowing the situation, Yixing withholds anything more than necessary but Junmyeon’s answering smile is enough for Yixing to know he appreciates being alleviated of the aches, no matter how small they were.

“Thank you.” Junmyeon’s words are barely above a whisper. “Do you have any idea what has happened here? You seemed especially concerned earlier when we found you.”

Yixing pauses, considering everything that has happened. It’s clear that this is some kind of result of the darkness and it’s stronger than anything Yixing has witnessed in the past. As a healer, he has a more intimate knowledge of the darkness than most others. Having to physically take it away and onto himself when ripping it from within someone's wounds, he’s no stranger to feeling the cold touch. But it felt vastly different when he reached into the unconscious people. Like the darkness fled from his touch in a desperate attempt to keep people under and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t reach them.

“It’s different this time.” Yixing explains as best as he can. “Usually, the darkness will latch onto anything it can, it’s part of why healers are able to draw it out of people. But when I try that with any of the sleeping people, the darkness flees. It’s like it’s been told to hide from anyone who tries to reach out to it.”

Junmyeon seems contemplative at Yixing’s words. Between them, they’re likely the most experienced members of the team and it’s clear neither of them have encountered anything like this at all.

“I’m reluctant to say it in front of the others,” Junmyeon pauses to glance back into the main room and check that everyone else is asleep. “But this time, it feels like someone is controlling it.”

Yixing sighs, Junmyeon’s words confirming his own fears. All the past occurrences have felt so random, but something about the effort this time is coordinated and the darkness could not have done it by itself.

Their conversation is cut off when they hear noises of someone else stirring in the main room. With a shared look and a nod, they step back out together. It’s Baekhyun who appears to be waking up and when he catches sight of Junmyeon and Yixing leaving the kitchen together, an expression passes over his face that Yixing can’t quite decipher. Like with Junmyeon, Yixing moves over to Baekhyun’s side and checks him over. Finding no injuries, he pushes a small soothing wave through the other before retreating.

“Thanks,” Baekhyun grumbles and puts a bit of distance between them and folds his hands in his lap. Baekhyun’s nearly at his normal level of energy and isn’t making an attempt to get closer to him or talk about how they should be friends and instead moved away? It’s weird, but Yixing chalks it up to the current circumstances when he double checks over Baekhyun and finds nothing terribly wrong. Baekhyun is a little upset, but Yixing assumes he’s groggy when he gets up. “You really didn’t need to. I think the others need more help than I do.”

“We’re teammates; weren’t you saying something earlier about leaning on each other?” Yixing reminds. “Besides, you’re the only one up right now, Junmyeon aside. Of course I’d help you.”

“I guess.” Baekhyun’s voice trails off with a huff. His lips flatten before he asks, “Why were you in the kitchen alone with Junmyeon? You didn’t only heal him, did you?”

That catches Yixing off guard. Then again, Yixing has to remind himself of how quick witted Baekhyun has always been. “What makes you think that?” he questions back, trying to avoid having to answer at the moment.

“You don’t need to go into the kitchen to take away someone’s bruises, Yixing.” Baekhyun points out and even reaches forward to thump Yixing’s forehead, but stops short of doing so and places his hand back in his lap. “You could have done that out here.”

“Oh.” Well, Baekhyun is right, but explaining everything would be best done when everyone else is awake. “It’s not that important.” It isn’t the best excuse he could give, but with the way Baekhyun had panicked earlier over this really being the prophecy coming true, _it is_ best to keep this a secret for now. “I should heal the others while they’re sleeping.”

As Yixing makes the move to stand, Baekhyun is already hoping over to his side and tugging down hard on his robes, keeping him in place. “Don’t you trust me?” His bottom lip juts out and his eyes are pleading, but Yixing can’t risk making their strongest filled with anxiety before what will probably be the most important battle of their lives.

“I do trust you Baekhyun, but—”

“But not as much as Junmyeon, right?”

“It’s the same.”

“Then tell me what you were talking about.” He pauses to whisper, “Or was it something _more private_ spoken between just the two of you?” and his brow raises. “Like them?” head motioning toward Kyungsoo and Chanyeol.

 _Them? Is he implying_ — “Private?” Yixing nearly chokes on his own spit and reaches for his now cold tea to take a few gulps. After he wipes his mouth with the sleeve of his robes and regains his composure, he wonders what would even make Baekhyun think he and Junmyeon have something between them. “It’s not like that,” Yixing sighs. “He’s just—good at giving advice.”

“Advice?” Baekhyun’s expression is nothing short of skeptical, but it’s all Yixing has at the moment.

Yixing instinct of keeping the trepidation he feels about the situation to himself proves poignant as Jongdae yawns loudly from his place on the floor. Clearly he hadn’t fancied finding himself squished in Chanyeol’s embrace whilst he searches for Kyungsoo in his sleep. The proof of Kyungsoo having been squashed himself is that he’s barely visible between Chanyeol and the sofa. Jongdae stretches out as he comes around, kicking Sehun’s hand that overhangs the sofa he’s somehow managed to steal off Jongin. It serves as a quick awakening for Sehun, who panics a little, clearly thinking he’s under attack of some sort. A strong gust rushes through the room throwing everyone off balance.

Chanyeol tumbles from the sofa, landing promptly on top of Jongdae who groans loudly at the additional weight. Baekhyun falls back onto the couch from where he had slightly stood up and he takes Yixing with him from the slight grip he has on his wrist. It’s all knees and elbows and Yixing does his best to fall onto the edge of the couch instead of directly on top of Baekhyun but he isn’t the most successful at it. Baekhyun’s elbow catches him in the jaw and he feels his body immediately respond to soothe the bruise that would have appeared. A quick glance around the room shows everyone else in a similar state, Minseok has fallen from his chair to the ground and Jongin has slid a few feet across the floor. The only person seemingly unaffected by the outburst is Kyungsoo and he blearily sits up amongst the chaos.

Yixing quickly sits himself upright before one too many thoughts regarding Baekhyun plague his mind. He then immediately gets up to help Jongin off the ground as he gives a scolding glance towards a laughing Sehun who just hides his laughter behind his hand now.

Jongin groans out a small thanks then clears his throat to yell, “What the fuck was that Sehun? I was thrown across the room—” until Junmyeon approaches him from behind to cover his mouth. _Where did he even come from?_ Yixing doesn’t remember him among the chaos and he lets it go to watch as Jongin tries to pry Junmyeon’s hand away, but it’s no use.

“That’s enough Jongin,” Junmyeon politely gets out and releases the younger. Jongin goes to sulk on the couch. “And Sehun apologize. To everyone.”

Sehun huffs and he sighs out, “Sorry,” and shyly mumbles through, “I was asleep and thought we were under attack.” He flops down to the couch. “But it was kind of funny, right?”

Yixing sees a bunch of eye rolls before he’s making his way towards Sehun to rid him of any injuries and does the same for everyone else he hadn’t gotten to yet. In no time, everyone is nearly recovered and Yixing downs another cup of now grown cold tea to give himself a boost. After everyone’s settled back into their original places on the couches, Yixing notices that Junmyeon remains standing, serious look upon his face. One by one, random conversation between the magic wielders die out and their attention focuses solely on Junmyeon. Out of the corner of his eye Yixing notices Baekhyun’s eyes going intently between himself and Junmyeon, fingers clutching onto his robes.

“As you all are probably aware, fighting back the darkness has become a lot more difficult, especially with our last mission and what just occurred here at base not too long ago,” Junmyeon starts and Yixing is thankful he’s getting straight to the point. “After trading info with Yixing some minutes ago, it has only helped me confirm my own suspicions about what we’re truly dealing with.” He moves to sit on the arm of Minseok’s sofa seat to face everyone a lot better. “I was hesitant to share this all with you but seeing as we may very well be the only ones awake to deal with this, it leaves me with little choice.” Yixing can sense the anxiety rise in the room, even more so when Junmyeon continues, “We believe the darkness is somehow being controlled; everything about today feels far too calculated from normal.”

Yixing looks around the room, most faces showing signs of pure shock and yet, when he gets to Baekhyun, the light bearer remains calm. It’s a little odd considering everything that happened today, but maybe the reality of it all has finally settled in and Baekhyun feels more at ease. He brings his attention back to Junmyeon.

“Rather than stay here and wait for it to attack again, I think it’s best if we go out in search of whatever it is that’s controlling the darkness,” Junmyeon says, carefully reading over everyone.

“You want us to go out and search for something that might be a hunch from you and Yixing?” Sehun questions. “Why can’t we just stay here and wait for everyone to wake up?”

“Because it’s too risky. There are far too many who could wake up and attack us again and you see how much that wore us out on top of us returning from missions.” He pauses when Jongdae smirks. “Minus Jongdae apparently, but my point still stands. We’re outnumbered against this many magic bearers even if the nine of us are some of the best, or even _the best._ ”

His head turns toward Baekhyun whose cheeks tint pink at the mention.

“Now, as far as it knows, mostly everyone at base has been taken out and I’m hoping it doesn’t expect us to make a move with such few numbers.”

“And how will we even find the darkness and whomever is controlling it?” Minseok asks. “I trust you, but you can’t expect us to go searching blindly.”

“We won’t,” Junmeyon says, giving a thumbs up. “From the data we have on the darkness so far, there seems to be a pattern of what villages it attacks. Now that it’s attacked us, I expect it to continue on with that pattern with a good chunk of us out being asleep.”

A difficult silence falls over the group as Junmyeon forces them to reconsider what they’ve believed about the darkness. Yixing has a small secretive look around the room, trying to gauge the response they’re going to get. It’s impossible to tell really as everyone is trying to guard their facial expressions. A wave of guilt and tiredness flashes through Yixing. The road ahead suddenly feels incredibly long and dark, made more so by his friends reluctance to move with them. As he threatens to sink a little too far into his sadness, his attention is snapped by Baekhyun speaking.

“I trust you guys.” Baekhyun’s words are simple but they cut straight through the atmosphere in the room. It sends a kick of energy through the room and suddenly everyone is trying to speak at once. Yixing lets the words rush over him, his attention solely focused on Baekhyun. An unspoken energy charges between their gaze, so much so that Yixing feels Baekhyun’s light flash through him. It spikes through him until Baekhyun is the one who breaks the contact first.

His breathing is ragged, similar to Yixing’s own. Forcing a quick scan, Yixing reads Baekhyun as surface level as he can. He’s answered by a sensation unlike what he’s felt before. It’s mostly the usual feeling of Baekhyun, white and pure like all light bearers, but underneath, there’s something he’s come to associate with himself. Something grittier and rawer that only healers feel like. He hauls himself backwards out of his exploration, and it’s so visceral that he feels himself recoil as well.

Whatever had passed between them has left some kind of imprint on Baekhyun, something Yixing has never seen before. The only thing he’s known to leave a mark on someone has been the darkness itself. He’s not allowed to dwell on it though as he suddenly becomes aware of Junmyeon calling his name. Refocusing as quickly as he can, Yixing forces his attention back to the previous conversation.

“Yixing, do you want to explain what you think might happen?” Junmyeon’s words trigger Yixing’s memories vividly.

  
  


_The slight chill September brought with it ghosted around Yixing’s ankles. His robes did a good job at keeping the rest of his body warm. As he reached his destination, he was greeted by two much older bearers who demanded to see his paperwork. Dutifully, Yixing handed everything over, including the summons to this particular area. When the other bearers seemed satisfied, one of them guided him to the injured._

_As he walked into the makeshift medbay tent, Junmyeon was waiting inside. With little more than a nod of greeting, Yixing began to assess the first person. The small traces of darkness he found within were clearly just left overs, as if the darkness had entered this person, but then left them again. Working through everyone reveals a similar result. After purging what he could, he turned to Junmyeon who explained._

_“They’re from a neighbouring village. Walked here. Brought the darkness with them.” Junmyeon’s words sent a spike of cold through Yixing. Generally, the damage and disruption the darkness caused alerted the bearers fast enough that it remains contained to the town or village it originated in. But, if what Junmyeon said is true, the darkness was adapting their response. It was growing smarter._

_“Are you sure?” Yixing asked, desperate for some mistake._

_“The town we’re currently in is called Insan. Someone identified these 12 people as being from a village about an hour away called Tasa. Tasa still stands, mostly untouched, but our initial search has found traces of residual darkness. The same darkness still slightly clings to these people. Insan, however, has been attacked full force but the people are generally fine.” There was a long pause as Yixing digested all the information._

_“It’s learning.” The words left Yixing in barely more than a whisper but Junmyeon heard them as loudly as a scream._

_“Yes, it’s learning.” A cold settled over Yixing. The darkness had always been this simple brute force, breaking only where the lines had been weakest. For the first time, it had shown it’s hand at intelligence. It could adapt._

_“Something has changed. It’s not a mindless force anymore, despite however many years it has remained that. I think something or someone is controlling it.” Yixing didn’t know where the words came from, his thoughts and mouth moved at a pace he couldn’t analyse. A similar feeling seemed to have eclipsed Junmyeon as well._

_“We need to tell everyone.”_

_“Yes, we can’t just let other bearers walk into a fight not knowing that it’s a different enemy.”_

_They were abruptly cut off by the tent’s entrance flap swinging open dramatically. The imposing figure of a commanding officer stalked inside. Both Junmyeon and Yixing were quick to salute and the officer waved it aside._

_“Has the healer confirmed your suspicions, Junmyeon? I know you requested him personally.” Yixing’s eyebrows raised at the news but he remained silent._

_“Yes, Sir.” The officer’s attention swung to Yixing._

_“And what is your analysis?”_

_“There was a residual, non-malicious trace of darkness within all twelve. It appears the darkness entered them, but left without inflicting any serious damage.” Yixing kept his report brief, the way command prefered it. A resigned sigh slipped through the officer's stern facade._

_“Understood. Now, both of you are forbidden to speak of this matter to anyone further. If you are discovered to have spread information about this event to anyone else, the punishment will involve a dissolve of your role as a bearer. Do I make myself clear?” The officer’s words drove a stake into Yixing. He couldn't lose this, but he couldn’t let his friends walk into danger. Sharing a desperate look with Junmyeon, Yixing watched as Junmyeon locked the information and any surrounding fear or doubt, away._

_“Understood, sir.” The words felt like nails in a coffin as Junmyeon uttere them but Yixing forced himself to follow suit._

_“Understood, sir.”_

  
  


After telling their tale, the room falls into frosty silence. Once everything has sunken in, Yixing sees anger replace shock on his friends’ faces.

“They had us out there when this thing was fucking mutating?” Jongdae bites out as he stands, beginning to pace back and forth. “Do they realize how important, how fucking _useful_ that could have been for us? We’re out here fighting trying to contain this thing and they don’t tell us this? We could have been useful! We could have been looking for other clues. Are they trying to kill us off?”

When Jongdae stops yelling and takes in a single deep breath, it frightens Yixing.

“How could you not tell us this sooner?” He looks to both Junmyeon and Yixing, betrayal clearly written on his face. “And now you want our help to fight the darkness? What kind of bullshit is that?”

Yixing chooses to remain silent, hating how justifiable Jongdae’s, _everyones’,_ anger and frustration over them hiding something as important as this feels. Deep down, Yixing knows he should have told them the truth; they’re classmates and friends and he knows he can trust them with his life. They could have secretly been working on a solution to defeating the darkness even if his role as a bearer was at stake.

“We get that you’re angry,” Junmyeon says. “But we couldn’t risk our roles as bearers when we still needed to gather more info.”

He stands, walking over to Jongdae and then reaches out his hand, but is instantly rejected when Jongdae folds his arms and flops back down to the couch.

“It’s okay to be upset and if I had known a friend withheld information that put us and common folk in danger, I’d feel the same. But despite that, I’m asking you, _all of you,_ if you would come with me and I’m assuming Yixing.” Yixing simply nods. “I don’t know how long this will take or if we will make it back in one piece, but that’s nearly every mission we’ve been on since graduating.”

The atmosphere remains cold and Yixing knows everyone is weighing their options, but they really don’t have time for this.

“Junmyeon, we should head out now,” Yixing suggests. “We can round the base one more time for anyone else that might be awake and wants to join then leave. We can make this our last stop in case anyone here changes their mind. We should also pack a few things.”

“Right. Let’s split time in half and I’ll check the eastern quarters while you go through the west. We should be able to handle anything on our own.”

“Chanyeol and I will take the south. That’ll save some time,” Kyungsoo offers. “You’re both stupid for thinking we wouldn’t be able to keep things quiet, but we can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

“He’s right!” Chanyeol beams, his smile giving Yixing a sense of comfort. He then pulls Kyungsoo from the couch and drags them off and out of the lounge, not waiting for anyone to say anything more.

The effortless nature of their relationship alights that old envy Yixing has always felt towards happy couples. Having been raised by a single mother, and then quickly being moved into a boarding school after his abilities started to reveal themselves at age nine, Yixing has always admired couples that seem to work so well together. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol, whilst never anything but friendly to everyone else, were almost immediately drawn to one another. It had been a few years since Chanyeol’s awkward confession, and they seem to work just as well as ever.

Picking himself up from his seat, Yixing brushes non-existent dust from his robes. The deep charcoal is the same comfort it has always been and he nods his readiness to Junmyeon. Everyone else seems a little startled by how quickly Chanyeol and Kyungsoo had stepped up but Yixing’s hand on the door jerks some of them back into motion.

“I’m with you.” Minseok’s words are simple, as always, but they punch through both of them, Junmyeon especially. “I’ll work with Junmyeon, we’ve been alongside each other up until now, I don’t see why it should change.”

Grateful smiles soften Yixing and Junmyeon’s features. With a poignant shared look, Junmyeon follows Minseok outside. Jongin seems to then move without thinking.

“Me and Sehun will take the north, I can get us out if need be. We’ll aim to be back here before nightfall.” It’s obvious that Sehun hasn't been consulted about this but he’s completely speechless as Jongin grabs his wrist and tugs him past Yixing and out of the room. It leaves a very prickly Jongdae and an eerily quiet Baekhyun. Not able to endure the silence, Yixing speaks up.

“Stay safe both of you.” He feels silly as soon as the words pass his lips. Baekhyun is arguably one of the strongest light bearers to ever live and Jongdae was consistently near the top of their class for strength. Scolding himself for his foolishness, Yixing pushes his way out into the hallway. Vowing to properly focus on tracking down whatever is now controlling the darkness, Yixing doesn’t notice Baekhyun quietly slipping out behind him. It comes as quite a shock when he reaches out to the nearest unconscious person but Baekhyun grabs his shoulder.

Jerking back in surprise, Yixing scrambles against the floor. Giggles spill from Baekhyun’s mouth freely at his response and Yixing only feels his heart rate begin to slow back down as he shoots a strong glare in Baekhyun’s direction.

“Come on now Xing. I’m not heartless enough to let you go by yourself.” Baekhyun beams down at him as if Yixing hadn’t just told everyone he was keeping a huge secret from them. “Jongdae can wait here and calm down, you know he’s the most spiky about this stuff. I’m sure he’ll behave himself.”

Baekhyun’s hand reaches out and offers to collect Yixing from his place on the floor. Begrudgingly, Yixing takes the offer and climbs back to his feet.

“You could have told me you were coming,” Yixing huffs as Baekhyun lets go of his hand to lay the unconscious person Yixing was about to help in a more comfortable position. “I could have attacked you.”

“I doubt that with you stumbling all over the floor.” He lets out the most annoying cackle and Yixing can’t help but roll his eyes. “But really, I have faith you wouldn’t have.”

Yixing chooses to stay silent as they start their journey towards the western area of the base. After a few minutes go by, Yixing wonders would it be a good idea to bring up whatever that spark was between them in the lounge; it still has his skin prickling from even the thought of it. Has Baekhyun ever experienced something like that before? Would Baekhyun even know how to define it? As soon as Yixing parts his lips, they close just as fast when Baekhyun’s mouth begins to move.

“Oh, sorry about earlier,” Baekhyun apologizes, confusing Yixing.

“Sorry? About what?” he questions. He doesn’t remember him doing anything offensive.

“Assuming you and Junmyeon were _‘a thing,’_ ” he clarifies with a shy laugh. “You two seem awfully close and then you went off to the kitchen together. Alone. Then you seemed all secretive so I just thought you two really hadn’t defined your relationship or whatever.”

 _Oh._ Baekhyun had assumed he and Junmyeon of all bearers were a couple? It’s not the first time others have made the same mistake, but he wonders why people don’t think the same with Jongdae when he sees him just as much. Then again, Jongdae has always had rumors with that fellow lightning bearer he’s always so tight lipped about.

“A lot of people think the same,” Yixing says and quickly stops them so he can adjust another unconscious body. “We’re just friends though. Really good friends.” He feels the need to further clarify. “I’ve never thought of Junmyeon that way.”

“Noted.” Baekhyun grins, baffling Yixing. “Do you sense anyone that’s awake yet, by the way? I think it would be quicker if you just felt out every room instead of us just checking them.”

Yixing shakes his head when they stop at a door he recognizes as one of the smaller medical supply rooms. “But can’t just leave them in uncomfortable positions either. It might cause further injury depending on how their body is situated.”

Baekhyun frowns, probably wanting to get this over with as much as Yixing does. More than likely they’re not going to find anyone if they haven’t run into any other bearers by now, especially if Yixing hasn’t sensed anyone awake, but it doesn’t hurt to look when he can only sense energy so far out and the base is rather big.

“You’re right, but at least—” Baekhyun stops and pushes the medic door open. “Let’s get to work then.”

 _At least what?_ Yixing almost asks Baekhyun what he was about to say when he spots a fellow healer propped against the wall upside down. Rushing quickly to his side, Yixing forgets what he was concerned about in favour of turning the healer the right way up. Forcing himself to hunt down the small amount of darkness that is holding the healer under, Yixing locates it wrapped around the bearer’s own energy. Knowing it will be extremely fiddly and potentially dangerous to remove the darkness without any help, Yixing settles for just examining it.

The dark energy seems at home where it is. It’s certain that the pure energy that the bearer usually wields doesn’t find anything wrong with the additional darkness. Usually, when a bearer is infected, the bearer’s own existing power fights back. It’s why cases of darkness related injuries and illnesses are so much fewer in bearers themselves. A healer especially would be hyper aware of any foreign energy.

Whilst the darkness still feels cold and unlike Yixing’s own energy, clearly, it managed to blend well enough to reach its destination in this host. Drawing back, he consults with Baekhyun.

“Have you ever been hit with raw darkness?” Yixing’s question comes a little out of the blue but Baekhyun responds anyway.

“Yes, a few times. Why do you ask?”

“Could you tell me what it felt like? My interactions with the darkness have predominantly been after it has interacted with something else.” Yixing avoids explaining briefly, and asks again.

“It felt like the complete opposite to my own energy. Cold, and invasive, and cruel. I guess it felt raw in the same way that my own power felt raw when I draw on it but by the time I wield it, it feels completely different.” Baekhyun's explanation helps connect a few dots in Yixing’s mind. In the past, he would usually keep those thoughts to himself, but, with a quick reminder, he realises he doesn’t have to anymore.

“I think it’s been trying to copy the way we perceive our own energy and use that to slip inside unnoticed. The people it hasn’t affected are all from our class and we all developed ways to use our abilities differently, hence why it can’t join with us. The darkness in this healer has seamlessly joined with the existing energy.” They both fall silent, considering what this could mean.

“They were gone before they even knew it then. The teleporters brought it back to base with them, it would be simple to spread out from there.” Baekhyun makes another jump and Yixing solemnly nods his agreement. “Unfortunately, that likely means we’re on our own.”

Eyebrows furrowing, Yixing turns his gaze back to Baekhyun and away from the unconscious healer.

“There were more members of our class, surely some must still be awake.”

“I doubt it. Let’s be real, Xing. You’ve got the highest performing members all here already. Anyone else who likely could have withstood the attack is probably not here and it could take weeks for them to reach us. We’re all there is going to be.”

Regardless of how good of a point Baekhyun makes, Yixing would still like to have a little bit of hope left that there are others still out here at base ready to fight alongside them. Nine people—eight if Jongdae decides to sulk over help—surely can’t be enough, right? The fact that only nine people made it through the attack, that everyone here was supposed to be the top of their class with far too many even having more experience than them is unsettling to say the least. It’s honestly strange and Yixing questions if they can manage to find out if their other bases are in a similar situation or better off.

Yixing tsks and walks away from the healer, grabbing Baekhyun’s hand to tug him out of the room once he feels out that everyone else is fine minus a few cuts and bruises. The next few stops are the same as the medic room, having a few people in odd positions that they have to correct and their energy being twisted in sync along with the darkness. It feels like an eternity has passed by the time they even finish half of searching the western base, not a single bearer awake in sight.

“I think we should head back to the lounge with Jongdae,” Yixing sighs. “You were right about us being the only ones still able to fight.” Baekhyun hums but doesn’t say anything as he loops his arm around Yixing’s, pulling him further along and in the opposite direction of where they should be going to head back to the lounge. Yixing tries to free his arm just in case he needs every second to be prepared for another attack and he thought Baekhyun was on the same page. “You should let go of my arm Baekhyun. What if we get attacked again?”

“I doubt that. They would have been tried to get us again if they knew they could win. It’s been a few hours at least, I think. Maybe more.” Baekhyun says no more and begins humming a gentle melody.

“Then where are we going? We should go back.”

Baekhyun still says nothing and continues to hum and Yixing figures he won’t know until they arrive at their destination. But he can trust that Baekhyun won’t lead them to danger or anywhere that serves no purpose. Yixing allows himself to relax and listen to Baekhyun’s humming that slowly transitions into singing. He had almost forgotten how pretty of a voice Baekhyun had, how Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae would have competitions on who could hit the highest or lowest note. Jongdae had always won for both categories, but it didn’t stop the others from participating until their voices cracked or they ended up coughing. After, they’d always sing some song Kyungsoo picked out because it was Chanyeol’s favorite and knew it would grab his attention.

That odd sense of feeling unworthy, talentless next to Baekhyun still prickles beneath Yixing’s skin despite how far he’s come. Regardless of the work he’s done and the praise he's received, he had never been able to reach the prestige that Baekhyun’s effortless nature had always garnered him. Doing his best to push away the envious feelings, Yixing forces himself back to the present. Baekhyun had moved onto something more bubbly and Yixing lets the upbeat rhythm pick him up. The melody abruptly cuts off when Baekhyun notices what’s ahead of them.

There’s a simple figure standing in the corridor. Its back is turned to both of them and Yixing and Baekhyun freeze in place. It's difficult to identify who is lurking there, but just from the build of the person, Yixing rules out any of the other seven people he knows are awake. Snaking out his consciousness, he signals to Baekhyun to ready himself. A sharp nod signals that Baekhyun is on the same page.

As the tip of his outstretched energy reaches the figure, it recoils from it and spins. With a snap, Yixing’s energy returns to him and it immediately morphs into a weapon. Focusing on the enemy, Yixing takes a sharp breath in shock.

It’s obvious whatever stands in front of them used to be human but it’s certainly not anymore. Darkness drips from it's mouth like tar, with teeth warped into disjointed fangs. The whites of its eyes are non-existent, replaced by more of the blackness which spreads through its veins ribboning over it's skin. It's unlike anything Yixing has seen before, completely different from the usual smoke that the darkness uses.

A roar erupts from the strange creature, and it kick starts Baekhyun and Yixing into motion. Light erupts at Baekhyun's fingertips, beaming forward and catching the creature in the shoulder. It rages, anger pouring from it in waves as it lunges down the corridor towards them. Yixing shapes his raw energy into two short blades and presses forward to meet the attack. Dodging the angry slash of the creature’s claws, Yixing steps inside the swing and both his blades sink into its chest. Throwing himself backwards, Yixing narrowly avoids being bitten. Black blood streams from the wounds inflicted but it staggers a few steps forward. Baekhyun's light forms his typical whip like weapon and with a graceful spin, Baekhyun lashes the scorching light against the creature and with a final cough, spewing black blood, it falls onto its front.

Chests heaving with exertion, Yixing turns to Baekhyun to check him over. The familiar warmth of Baekhyun’s light energy rushes back at him, apparently doing the same to him as Yixing is trying to search him. Once able to assure himself that they’re both fine, Yixing settles back down.

“The darkness corrupted one of us.” Baekhyun’s words are blunt as his shoulders sag. Knowing Baekhyun needs more than just words, Yixing reaches out and wraps an arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders. Baekhyun falls into him, grateful for the comfort. Yixing absolutely does not pay attention to how neatly Baekhyun fits into his side. And he definitely does not think of the warmth that spreads throughout his body. “Do you think they suffered much?” The question comes as a surprise until it dawns on Yixing that the darkness has always needed a host. The only people who would have access to these quarters are bearers.

Yixing’s stomach drops and he tries not to let his mind wander to how that bearer had loved ones they’ll never see and dreams they’ll never reach. It’s sickening how their only choice was to fight back. “I think they’re at peace,” Yixing settles on and nudges them forward, still attached to Baekhyun. He tries not to look at the body on the ground and avoids the pool of blood as best he can. He needs to focus elsewhere fast. “Where were you leading us anyway?”

“Oh, to the sleeping quarters.” Baekhyun’s voice is quiet as he adjusts their position to walk with Yixing hand in hand. Yixing notices the tips of Baekhyun’s free fingers have the faintest bit of light to them, probably ready for another sudden attack. “You said we should pack, right?”

Yixing hums and Baekhyun continues to speak.

“They actually put all us light bearers over here which is kind of stupid,” he points out and the continued change in topic is more than welcomed. “We should all be mixed and not separated by what kind of gift we have. What if someone wanted to target light bearers only?”

“You know our superiors have been stuck in their old ways. I heard it’s been tradition to keep the sleeping quarters that way since forever ago.”

“It doesn’t make sense when enemies actually seek out specific bearers now.”

“I know. Maybe after all this darkness stuff is over, we can bring it up. If you think about it, it was kind of silly to have nearly our entire class here. What if the aim was to wipe us all out in one swoop?”

“That’s scarily believable.” There’s a pause and Baekhyun tugs on Yixing’s wrist, causing him to glance Baekhyun’s way as he says, “Anyway, while we have the chance I want to thank you for today.” _Thank me?_ Yixing doesn’t recall anything he did that was particularly noteworthy.

“For what?”

“Today. All of it. I don’t think I would be as level headed about everything if it weren’t for you. And I know you’re not the most touchy person, but you’ve let me find comfort in you when I’ve needed it, even now.” _Oh._ Before Yixing can even say anything in response, they stop and Yixing notices they’ve reached the sleeping quarters and this must be Baekhyun’s room. They cautiously step inside and Baekhyun is quick to use his gift to bring much needed light to the room. “Keep watch while I look for stuff.”

Yixing nods and leans against the nearest wall, keeping his eyes on the door. Thinking back to earlier, he says, “I think anyone would have done the same for you. Helping someone out doesn’t need thanks.”

“It’s not the same though,” Baekhyun comments over his bit too loud rummaging. “I don’t think anyone else would have had the same affect.”

Yixing takes a moment to really think about what Baekhyun had said. From his perspective, Baekhyun had always seemed to have the perfect relationship with everybody he met. Maybe beneath the surface, Baekhyun hadn’t had the easy and stress free time he’d always imagined him having.

“I’d always thought you were everyone’s best friend? You’re close to everyone in a way that I can’t even imagine being. It’s not like I’m not close with our class, but you’re friends with everyone.” Yixing doesn’t really remember wanting to speak, but the words spill out regardless. Suddenly realising that what he’s said sounds a little jealous, Yixing looks away from Baekhyun and back down the corridor.

“Well, sure, I like all of our class and I wouldn’t change any of them, but I don’t think any of them look at me as anything other than smiley, unflappable Baekhyun. You see me as well, I feel like you see me as a human. If this had happened when I was with Chanyeol, or Sehun, or Jongdae, they’d have needed me and my energy. But you know we can share, that we can support each other.” Baekhyun trails off and sounds of rummaging get louder. “Aha, got it.”

He emerges from the room, and graces Yixing with a small smile. Yixing is still processing everything Baekhyun has said and simply stands there blankly as Baekhyun evolves into laughing at him. Lifting his prize into Yixing’s field of vision, Yixing jerks as he refocuses on what’s being held in front of him.

Pinched between Baekhyun’s fingers is a ring. It’s a silvery band, clearly some kind of precious metal, silver or platinum or white gold maybe. Three small, white stones are set into the metal and as Baekhyun slides it onto his finger, the stones alight with his energy. Yixing has heard about these kinds of things for light bearers, a way to constantly have their ability alert and close to the surface. As a healer, he’s never had anything to channel his gift. It would be irrelevant as his energy should be fully going into the person he’s treating. He’s still processing Baekhyun’s previous words so all he manages is a nod as Baekhyun slots the ring onto his finger.

Seeing Yixing is still not completely present, Baekhyun retakes his hand and guides him back towards the room they’d left Jongdae in. The metal of Baekhyun’s ring is pleasantly cool against his skin and Yixing finally finds his words again.

“I never imagined you felt pressured to constantly be a positive force. It has always felt so effortless from you. I try to keep things simple for everyone but I never realised that you were being leaned on as much as I was as a healer. I might have been solving the physical woes but I’m sure you have smoothed plenty of mental worries. It’s my turn to thank you for that.” Having said his piece, Yixing feels like he’s got a weight off his shoulders.

“It’s really nothing; helping you doesn’t need thanks.” Baekhyun turns back to give Yixing a wide smile that Yixing matches. He chuckles at the thought of Baekhyun echoing his words from earlier. “I’m just happy, or rather grateful, you didn’t push me away. You always do that, you know.”

“I’m sorry.” Yixing finds that he actually means it. Rather than keep his thoughts of why to himself, he explains, “I think—well, no—I know that I’ve always been a teeny bit jealous of you.”

“Of me? Why? I’m nothing special.”

Yixing stops them in their tracks, forcing Baekhyun to look directly at him. “First, we both know that’s a lie and don’t deny it. And two, you’re just—you’re Byun Baekhyun, the first in our class, gifted genius, and all that other great stuff they say about you. And I’m Yixing. I’ve always had to work hard and work hard and then work even harder while everything seemed to come so natural to you. If you were a healer I bet you would have learned to weaponize your gift in a shorter amount of time than I did.” Baekhyun remains speechless as he gets them walking again, confusing Yixing, all the more so when Baekhyun starts humming of all things. _Doesn’t he have anything to say?_ “You don’t think that’s weird?”

“It’s—and don’t take this the wrong way—kind of silly?” Yixing rolls his eyes from the hint of laughter laced in Baekhyun’s voice. “I mean, your feelings are valid, but I don’t know, I guess I never expected you of all people to be jealous of me. I mean, everyone has to work hard at something, plus you have a _rare_ gift Xing. It’s not like you had instructors lining up to teach you when most were being sent off on missions so it was expected that you wouldn’t learn as fast as the rest of us. I don’t think I’m all that special, just a fast learner, which is why I had plenty of help with my gift. It’s not like I learned everything about it overnight.”

Well, he had certainly never thought of his situation that way before, but of course Baekhyun would be the one to have it all make sense. “I guess so. It’s just that I’ve always felt a bit worthless when being compared to you. The instructors never really praised me or told me I was doing well and yet there you were being fawned over by the same ones.”

“We all know the instructors are shit. Minus Mr. Shim, we all liked him.”

“We did,” Yixing laughs.

“So, don’t take their words to heart. You’re worth a lot more than you think you are.”

“Thanks.”

Yixing feels a soft blush paint his cheeks. It grows even stronger when Baekhyun giggles and squishes his cheek. The honest playfulness has Yixing unsure how to respond. This draws even more giggles from Baekhyun and when Yixing turns his blank expression over in Baekhyun’s direction, he’s not sure if he’s imagining the slight glow surrounding Baekhyun. It's remarkable how even here, in the situation they’re in, Baekhyun can smile and be himself.

Answering with his own smile, Yixing feels the warmth between them as more than just a shared smile. Alike when they had met each other’s eyes in the room earlier, Yixing can practically feel Baekhyun’s own light energy blend with his own. With a sudden gasp, Yixing grabs Baekhyun’s wrist and draws them to an abrupt halt.

“Wait, do that again.” Yixing keeps his gaze locked on Baekhyun as confusion paints the light bearer’s features.

“Do what again?”

“I don't know exactly. Look at me, I guess.”

“Just look at you?” The space between Baekhyun’s eyebrows creases proving that he’s even more confused than before.

“I don’t know, didn’t you feel it back in the common room? Part of our energies linked in some way. When I searched you, part of my aura was with you and when I explored myself to see if it was an equal sensation, I felt your energy there too. Somehow, we exchanged energies in some way. Do that again, whatever it was.” Yixing's explanation is patchy at best, but thankfully, Baekhyun seems to understand what he’s getting at.

“I don’t know how it happened either. But I can try, I guess.” That's more than Yixing had expected he’d be willing to do. With a nod, Yixing pulls Baekhyun into a small side room, thankfully empty. Pulling two chairs to face one another, Yixing lowers himself into one and Baekhyun folds into the other. Quick to make himself comfortable, Baekhyun tucks his feet underneath him. Taking a deep breath, Yixing relaxes and opens himself up to Baekhyun’s energy. Meeting Baekhyun’s eyes, he feels that almost familiar slip and suddenly, it's as if a tunnel between them has opened up.

Warm light floods towards him as he pushes his own healing energy back down to Baekhyun. Vaguely, he hears Baekhyun gasp as his own deep red energy swirls alongside the pure white of Baekhyun's. Pulling back a little, Yixing feels their energy align somehow perfectly and with a gasp of his own, they draw apart completely.

Despite drawing back, something of Baekhyun still remains, a warmth his own healing energy doesn’t have. A shared smile passes between them and Yixing can almost feel the weird happiness that Baekhyun is transmitting. It must be both ways as Baekhyun’s face changes again, clouding with Yixing’s own feelings.

“OK, this is weird but cool at the same time.” Yixing finds himself agreeing with Baekhyun’s statement.

“Could it be, this is how the darkness corrupted that bearer?” Yixing wishes they understood more about the darkness, their knowledge still so minimal. He wonders if there is more the higher ups know that has been kept from him, in much the same way the morphing of the abilities had been hidden from the others.

“It’s highly possible. But how come we didn’t know we could do this?”

“I think it could have been intentionally hidden from us. Magic bearers aren’t a new concept so I’m positive there were more like us in the past; it wouldn’t make sense otherwise.” Baekhyun nods thoughtfully as Yixing continues, “What Junmyeon and I went through proves they have no problems with keeping secrets and it probably wasn’t the first incident like that. Bearers being able to exchange energies may have even been scrubbed from the history books.”

“Seems like it would have been more useful to have us know how to do it, especially with the prophecy and all.” Baekhyun frowns then lets out a deep sigh. “Why is everyone in charge so stupid.”

Yixing shrugs. “Beats me. Let’s hurry and get back and see if we can try this with the others. It could help us figure out how to fight the darkness better if more of us can exchange energies.”

Baekhyun stands first, holding out his hand and Yixing takes it with no issue. He leads them out. “You know, if I had known the darkness would have made us closer, I would have been more eager to figure this all out sooner over blowing it off since our first class on it. Or maybe it would have been better to come to you when I was stressed.”

“I told you I was jealous.” Yixing can’t believe how much their relationship has changed in just a single day. “Also, you were always kind of too loud for my liking.”

The comment makes Baekhyun snort. “But we’re friends now, right?” he asks as he looks to Yixing, even nudging his side.

“Definitely friends.”

“Good. We better be after we became energy buddies.”

“Energy bu—”

Yixing can’t even finish his sentence before he’s laughing, wholeheartedly so at Baekhyun’s words. And it feels _good_ just to relax for a moment, to not feel so on edge because of what’s to come, and have Baekhyun laughing right along with him. He ignores the regret that starts to fester in his mind at not giving Baekhyun a chance sooner. But it’s okay because they’re friends now and they’re here _laughing_ together. There will be plenty more chances like this if they both can make it out of their fight with the darkness alive.

After the laughter dies down, Baekhyun begins humming like he had earlier that soon turns into quiet singing until they reach the secluded lounge they were in before. Baekhyun lets go of Yixing’s hand to cautiously push open the door. He peeks in and then breathes in a sigh of relief and motions for Yixing to follow. There, Jongdae lies napping and Yixing notices no one else has arrived back yet. He hopes they didn’t run into any similar trouble like they had with the darkness. They walk over to Jondgae and Baekhyun gently taps at Jongdae’s shoulder until he’s stirring awake.

“Hey,” Baekhyun greets softly. “Has anyone else come back yet?”

Jongdae sits up and shakes his head.

“No. You’re the first.” Drowsiness lies heavy in his tone, part of Yixing getting a little frustrated that Jongdae was sleeping whilst everyone else was potentially risking their lives. Almost immediately after that, he berates himself for thinking in such a way. Everything that has happened so far has no doubt left him feeling drained and exhausted, of course Jongdae is going to grab some rest when he can. Reaching for his energy, Yixing notices the traces of Baekhyun’s still there as he pushes a wave through Jongdae to make sure he’s ok. Finding nothing, he retreats back within himself and moves to sit on the sofa he’d occupied before. Baekhyun elects to stick close to Jongdae, forcing him to shuffle over a bit but it aids in getting Jongdae properly awake. Taking a deep breath, Yixing summons a little courage for what he knows will probably be a difficult conversation.

“Jongdae,” Yixing barely starts before Jongdae is holding up a hand to stop him. Yixing’s carefully planned words stutter to a halt at the gesture.

“Look, I get it. You don’t need to justify what you did, I know that you would have told us if you thought you could without facing punishment from our superiors. I know what being an official bearer means to you and Junmyeon so I couldn’t ask you to give that up simply because a secret was being kept from me. In the moment, I was just angry at the fact that we weren’t being told vital information and it was easy to lash out at you and Junmyeon for that. That wasn’t right of me and I’m sorry.” Jongdae’s apology is the same as everything Jongdae does, honest and straightforward. A wry smile twists Jongdae’s lips as he watches the surprise pass over Yixing’s features.

“It was wrong of us not to tell you all though. In hindsight, keeping my place as a bearer shouldn’t have come before your potential safety. It’s not fair that we had the knowledge and you guys weren’t able to have it as well.” Countering with his own apology, Yixing feels a bit of pressure slide off his shoulders. Jongdae is one of their class Yixing had always been closer to, they were often assigned to the same cases together and Jongdae had always been happy to seek Yixing out. He’d been worried that discovering Yixing had kept something from him would sour that friendship but Jongdae seemed as steadfast as ever.

“It doesn’t matter now, the past is the past. The real people to blame are whatever higher ups forbade you from telling us. This kind of thing would be vital for people on the front line to know, so why would they want to stop us learning it?” Once again, Jongdae gets straight to the heart of the matter.

“Could they have something to do with why the darkness has changed? Something they did that went wrong?” Baekhyun’s theory should feel far-fetched but it has a note of believability. “The prophecy has always felt far off until now. The darkness was supposed to go through a gradual change that we’re supposed to witness, but now everything’s gotten harder suddenly. It went from a five to ten in like a month. _That_ feels weird.”

“True,” Yixing sighs. “Baekhyun and I also discovered something between us during our scout of the western base.”

“Oh? Finally saw the sexual tension between you two wasn’t one-sided?” Jongdae smirks with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Baekhyun smacks the back of Jongdae’s head and glares at him as Yixing tilts his head in utter confusion. “Sexual tension? Why would there—nevermind. We don’t have time to joke right now. We actually discovered that we can um, exchange energies with each other.”

Jongdae stops rubbing at his head to quirk an eyebrow and he snickers. Yet he only gives a simple, “Explain,” as he pinches Baekhyun’s side.

“It happened by mistake the first time back when we were all in here. We just looked at each other and Baekhyun’s light passed through me and I guess the same is for him and my own healing energy.” Baekhyun nods. “So we tried to see if we could do it intentionally and it worked.”

“Worked how exactly?”

“I guess we just opened ourselves up to each other? Like those meditation exercises we used to do in classes. And tried to focus on giving our energies to each other.” Yixing pasues, knowing it’s not the best explanation, but it felt that simple for Baekhyun and him. “Even now, I can still feel some of Baekhyun’s light with my own healing energy. It’s like they’re connected seamlessly and that’s what I think is happening with the darkness and magic bearers.”

Jongdae looks between Yixing and Baekhyun and presses his lips together and Yixing knows he’s trying to hold in laughter for some odd reason. He exhales rather loudly before he calms and says, “I’m not going to say what I want, but if that’s true, why haven’t the higher ups taught us how to do this before? Or why didn’t we even know that it was possible?”

“We can only assume it’s been erased from history. It doesn’t make sense that we only found out about it now when there were great bearers before we were even born. Or even at the very least they should have taught Baekhyun considering his strength.”

“And this is your first time discovering this too?” Jongdae asks Baekhyun.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun sighs. “It would have been cool to know sooner. We don’t even know the full effects of it either. But that’s why we’re back here; we wanted to see if we could exchange energies with the others too. Maybe you and Yixing should start first since he’s more used to giving energy to others. Xing, come sit next to Jongdae.”

Baekhyun scoots over and pats the spot between them. Yixing doesn’t hesitate as he comes to sit between his friends, facing Jongdae. He feels more trepidation about trying this with Jongdae than with Baekhyun. Maybe because he knew it would succeed with Baekhyun. He’s never felt the weird synergy with Jongdae before despite working with him much more than he has with Baekhyun.

Taking a deep breath, Yixing relaxes himself as best he can both physically and mentally. When he meets Jongdae’s eyes, static electricity erupts across his skin. It’s almost enough that Yixing pulls away but he forces himself to stay open to the energy. Jongdae’s energy prickles the entire way as it tries to align with Yixing’s own. Whilst Baekhyun felt like a perfect puzzle piece slotting into line with Yixing’s own energy, Jongdae feels like he’s electrocuting all of Yixing’s nerve endings at once. It’s draining on Yixing, his own healing energy working to soothe the sharpness of Jongdae’s working through him. He distantly feels his own deep red seep into Jongdae, finding its way through the gaps in Jongdae’s purple electrical energy.

Abruptly, the link cuts off as Jongdae almost chokes. Jongdae’s energy disappears from his system, as quickly as it came and despite Yixing searching for it, there’s no trace of electricity within him. Once his own energy is done patching over the electrical leftovers and any damage that had been accidentally caused, Yixing becomes aware of the room around him again. Baekhyun has shifted to be in front of Jongdae, helping him regulate his breathing and when Yixing catches sight of Jongdae’s face, his eyes are bloodshot, the deep red colour Yixing always associates with his energy.

Immediately, Yixing sets to work on healing him, relieving the pressure his additional energy had caused. Jongdae sags back into the couch, his discomfort slowly easing.

“I’m guessing that wasn’t what it was like for you guys earlier?” Jongdae’s words are thankfully humorous and both Yixing and Baekhyun sag with relief.

“Completely different. If my energy wasn’t constantly working to heal myself, I don’t think I could have held out as long as I did. I could feel your energy with mine, but it was incredibly uncomfortable. I felt like you were electrocuting me from the inside out.” Yixing’s explanation is a lot more coherent than the following one from Jongdae.

“I don’t know what you did but it was like my blood suddenly didn’t belong to me. I was fine, I could feel myself slipping to you and then suddenly you pushed back and everything went wrong.” Everyone falls silent trying to take in the new complications.

“Maybe, only certain abilities are compatible with others? Yixing could take yours, Jongdae, because he could heal any damage you caused, but his energy doesn’t work with you. Light bearers and Healers have worked together for a long while so maybe subconsciously, they’ve always been more compatible.”

Baekhyun’s words make sense, Yixing has always known that many of the other healers work with light bearers quite closely. In some cases, if there hasn’t been any physical damage caused to the person, a light bearer can cleanse away the darkness before a healer is needed. It’s not ever been made into an exact science but many healer and light bearer pairs had naturally formed over the years. Yixing had never paired with anyone despite being well regarded, his area of expertise has always been more severe injuries. It had been very clear early on that Yixing’s energy was a deep running one, and after he’d developed it so he could use it as a weapon, it became even less likely for him to ever find a light bearer willing to work alongside him.

Jongdae hums in agreement with Baekhyun’s statement. He seems to have mostly recovered from whatever pain Yixing’s energy had caused him and is back to sitting upright. Despite knowing he needs to tell Jongdae about the bearer that had been corrupted by the darkness, Yixing chooses to keep quiet for the time being. He’s reluctant to have to repeat the story more than once. Baekhyun and Jongdae talk about more banal things, as Yixing’s mind drifts.

This new evolution of the darkness seems deliberate, controlled, like it’s been carefully planned. Getting the darkness into the base had been the first step, and they’d have needed knowledge of how the bearer’s working environment was run to do this. Either they’d managed to get the information out of a bearer through some means, or they were a bearer themself with a high enough rank to slip enough darkness into the base. Neither is a particularly fun idea to entertain. The longer Yixing thinks about the idea, the more convinced he becomes that this has been a carefully constructed plan. Someone is playing a dangerous game and the only advantage Yixing can see for them is that the nine of them were likely supposed to be asleep as well.

He’s pulled from his musings by the door opening and Kyungsoo stumbles inside, supporting a rough looking Chanyeol. Black ash covers his forearms, a clear sign he’s been involved in a fight but that’s not what Yixing notices most immediately. Blood drips from a gash near his hairline, and he’s weakly holding another cut in his side. On his feet in an instant, Yixing is easing Chanyeol into a chair, energy already sweeping out and over him. Baekhyun moves too, taking Kyungsoo by the hand and pulling him away slightly. By the way Kyungsoo sags into the chair, Yixing guesses Baekhyun has done what he can to soothe the ragged edges Kyungsoo likely has as well. Completely disregarding everything else, Yixing dedicates himself to work.

The slash in Chanyeol’s side is the most serious. Removing Chanyeol’s own hands, Yixing replaces them with his own. The blood doesn’t bother him at all and he feels his energy leap at the contact with Chanyeol’s skin through the fabric. Giving himself a little more strength, Yixing applies pressure but knowing he can work better skin to skin, he uses one hand to press and the other to rip a larger chunk of the long sleeve shirt away from Chanyeol’s skin. Ideally, he’d be able to clean the wound before starting his repair work, but he senses he doesn’t have the luxury of time here. Replacing both hands onto the cut, Yixing extends his energy into Chanyeol.

The wound is jagged and messy, and Yixing suspects Chanyeol and Kyungsoo ran into similar creatures as himself and Baekhyun did earlier. When he discovers the wound isn’t simply physical but traces of raw darkness linger within the cut, Yixing is glad he didn’t delay working. Knowing he can’t purify the darkness and heal Chanyeol at the same time, Yixing settles for just pulling the darkness out and letting it fall to the floor whilst he begins to knit Chanyeol back together. An idea prickles to life and he doesn’t let himself doubt before he speaks.

“Baekhyun, I’m drawing darkness out of this wound. Can you cleanse it away whilst I focus on making sure Chanyeol is ok?” The first drips begin to fall as he speaks and Baekhyun nods hurriedly, rushing to their side. Thankfully, Jongdae takes Kyungsoo’s hand and comforts him whilst Yixing and Baekhyun work. Yixing moves carefully. Making sure each section is knitted back together perfectly before moving closer to the surface of the wound, Yixing is sure it’s some of his best work. When he’s satisfied that the main gash is successfully healed, Yixing shifts his hands to Chanyeol’s forehead.

Thankfully, the head wound looks a lot worse than it is. It’s much easier to heal this one, especially as very little darkness lingers within it and Yixing is able to draw back soon after the work. Nothing else seems serious so Yixing retreats to wake Chanyeol up. With some gentle shaking and coaxing, Chanyeol cracks his eyes open a little. Kyungsoo is by his side without hesitation.

“Chanyeol, it’s Yixing. Are you still in pain? I’ve healed most of the damage.” Yixing’s words are soft, not wanting to make Chanyeol any more uncomfortable.

“Thank you. I got a little worried there for a minute but I feel ok. Just tired now.” Chanyeol croaks out the words, before closing his eyes again. With a light squeeze of Kyungsoo’s hand, Chanyeol slips back asleep. Yixing rocks backwards as well, his own energy a little depleted. Both Jongdae and Baekhyun steady him and he thanks them both with a grateful nod. His hands are covered in blood, no doubt some of which stain his robes as well so he pushes himself up into the kitchen. With a quick look to Jongdae, Baekhyun follows Yixing whilst Jongdae remains with Kyungsoo. As the warm water cleans his skin, Yixing sighs in relief and lets his muscles relax. Tension bleeds out of both Yixing and Baekhyun and they share a worried look.

“They must have ran into something like what we did. Probably multiple somethings if Chanyeol and Kyungsoo weren’t able to handle them like we were. We need to explain to Jongdae what’s happening and then get out there and find the others.” Baekhyun’s words are hushed and hurried and Yixing simply nods his agreement. Drying off his now clean hands, Yixing turns to return but Baekhyun grabs his arm quickly. “As much as I am quick to deny these things, it’s starting to look a lot like this is the time the prophecy has been talking about.”

Furrowing his brows, Yixing considers it. The prophecy leaps to his consciousness without much trying, he’s always thought it would happen sooner rather than later.

_When the light of existence is shadowed,_

_And those who protect it start to fall,_

_Only those with purest intention,_

_Will have the strength to withstand it all,_

_When the sun hides behind the horizon,_

_And the hope within seems gone,_

_Powers will unite amongst the dark,_

_And a new light shall be reborn._

“The shadows are definitely more prominent than ever, but the light of existence must be our souls or our powers or something? Like, the darkness is shadowing bearers now. It has to be the prophecy.” Baekhyun speeds up as he talks, almost like he just needs to gush. “And everyone here besides the nine of us has literally fallen asleep, so that takes care of the fallen part.”

Trailing off as if he hadn’t really considered what the rest of it meant, Baekhyun hesitates so Yixing pushes forward.

“Then that means, we nine are the ones of purest intention somehow. It can’t be coincidence that we are all different types of bearers. It must fall to us to find the person manipulating all this, and to stop them.” Yixing speaks the words into reality and Baekhyun begrudgingly nods to confirm they’re on the same page. “We have to tell everyone.”

Yixing’s ready to walk out of the kitchen when thinks better of it.

“You fill in Jongdae while I make myself a quick energy boost.” Baekhyun wordlessly exits the kitchen and Yixing starts going through the cabinets for anything that could restore some of his energy. The healing hadn’t been highly draining, but if he’s going to have to go and find the others, it’s best if he’s back at the top of his game. Thankfully, his search yields a few energy bars and some of the gels that have become popular with bearers more recently.

He eats one of each and takes the rest back through into the main room. It’ll be good for Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun to recover as well. A quick check reveals that Chanyeol is doing fine, practically like normal and he breathes evenly in his sleep. Kyungsoo smiles gratefully as he takes the energy bar with the hand not holding Chanyeol’s.

“Thank you for helping him. I didn’t know what else to do apart from get him here, thankfully you were already back.” Kyungsoo’s words are heavy with relief but Yixing smiles regardless.

“Chanyeol is strong; he could have lasted a week without me being here.” Yixing smiles and pats Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “He just needs a bit of rest and will be good to go when he wakes.”

“But what should we do now?” Jongdae asks. “Baekhyun told us everything. I don’t even know if it would be better to wait and possibly have any more of us come back wounded when they return or just go and find them before they're hurt.”

“How many of those creatures did you run into?” Baekhyun asks as he directs his attention to Kyungsoo.

“We ran into three,” Kyungsoo answers. “The first one was easy, but the other two caught us by surprise and Chanyeol stupidly jumped in the way of one of them when it was going to attack me.”

“He loves you,” Baekhyun simply states. “But we should get out of here, at least us three while you watch over Chanyeol. We’ll try to find everyone else and bring them back. Keep the doors locked and we’ll have Jongin pop us back in once we’re all grouped together. If he happens to get back here before us, we’ll be in the main baths and wait there for thirty minutes before heading east and trying to locate Minseok and Junmyeon. He and Sehun should be here soon anyway if they didn’t run into too much trouble.”

Kyungsoo nods and follows them to the door as they exit. As soon as Yixing hears the lock click, they dash off towards the northern part of base. Yixing prays Jongin and Sehun are alright; the northern part of base is where the dining hall is located and they know a ton of bearers were left there. Any one of them could have turned into something more dangerous. It’s nerve wracking and Yixing wishes he would have bothered to look at each one more closely.

They move smoothly, the old drills from class falling into place. Yixing recalls all the times he’d been paired with one or the other and it’s remarkably easy to let those habits take over again. Watching each other's backs, they check corners and race forward. As they get closer to the cafeteria, they encounter the first of the darkness bearers. It doesn’t notice them, it’s facing towards the other end of the corridor but Yixing doesn’t think they’ll be able to sneak up. From the last encounter, it would appear the creatures have more awareness of their surroundings than the usual person. Jongdae leans around the corridor, studying it carefully before nodding his readiness to the both of them. Lightning erupts in Jongdae’s palms, Yixing shapes his blades and Baekhyun’s fingertips alight with pure sun.

Racing forward, Yixing feels Jongdae’s lightning crackle past him striking the creature in the back and the shoulder as it turns. It erupts in a roar at the pain, the same black tar dripping from its mouth. Yixing dips beneath it’s swing, slashing across the creature’s thigh and twisting around to it’s back. Safely shielded by the creature itself, Yixing watches as Baekhyun hits the centre of it’s chest with a double handed blast of light. The creature drops to its knees and before Yixing can think about it in detail, he draws one of his blades across it’s neck. Corrupted blood leaks onto the floor but the three barely hesitate. Baekhyun and Jongdae move forward once more, Jongdae striking the body with another lightning blast to assure it’s truly dead.

They maintain the same fast pace as they move through the whole base back towards the cafeteria. Checking rooms as they go, they eventually find evidence of Jongin and Sehun when they find one of the corrupted bearers hanging through a shattered window. The majority of bearers still lay unconscious around them so thankfully, it hadn’t spread too far yet. Rounding yet another corner, the sound of a very faint pop echoes through to them; it betrays Jongin’s presence. When using his teleportation, the air occasionally will snap closed behind him when he’s moving at pace, creating a pop as he goes.

Jongin appears in the corridor, clutching Sehun, both of them heaving their breaths. Light injuries cover them but Yixing is thankful to discover there isn’t too much out of place with them. Relief washes over their features at seeing the three and they meet in the middle of the hall. With a few quick touches, Yixing deals with their small cuts and bruises before fixing Jongin with a look.

“I’m guessing you’ve been dealing with these creatures as well.” Yixing’s statement is direct and both Sehun and Jongin nod.

“We were aiming to get back to the cafeteria and found a few of them as we were checking rooms. No idea what they were but they wouldn’t stop attacking until we killed them.” Jongin looks remorseful. Teleporters aren’t usually fighters, despite being trained in it. Sehun scoffs at Jongin’s pitying tone.

“The cafeteria is impossible. There’s at least 15 of them in there now. Whenever one of them stumbles close enough to someone asleep and leaks blackness on them, they turn too. It was too much for us to handle alone.” Sehun opens his mouth to continue when a sharp crack echoes round the next bend.

All of them are instantly alert again, abilities rising swiftly to the surface. Yixing’s knuckles turn white around his blades. They all jerk back as a creature is launched into the wall of the corridor. It’s coated in heavy ice which shatters on impact with the stone walls and replicates the cracking they’d heard before. The body is followed by Minseok and Junmyeon, water and ice swirling menacingly around both of them. It dissipates when they realise who is standing in the corridor and slowly, everyone eases out of the heightened battle ready stances.

“Ahh, so you’re all ok.” Junmyeon’s words are heavy and everyone’s answering nods are similarly so. “Has anyone seen Kyungsoo and Chanyeol? We went searching for them but the closer we got to the higher ups quarters the more of these things lingered around. We figured we’d loop back the other way and regroup to take it together.”

“Chanyeol got injured, they came back to the room we stayed in last night. Thankfully, myself and Yixing had returned shortly before them. We think we worked out a bit more of what was happening and came to find everyone else once we were sure they were ok to look after themselves.” Baekhyun explains their side of the story.

“Then let’s get back to them and you can explain whatever you’ve both learned. I take it you’ve finished sulking Jongdae?” Junmyeon’s quirked eyebrow adds to the teasing nature of his tone and Jongdae pouts instantly.

“I wasn’t sulking! You’d been keeping secrets!” Jongdae’s whining is all too familiar a sound and it helps in soothing the tension around them all. Junmyeon manages a laugh as he leads them back in the direction of what feels like their base now. Falling naturally into his usual formation, Yixing drops back to cover their backs. Baekhyun, as a light bearer, stays further forward and Yixing is struck by the realisation that this is the furthest they’ve been apart for nearly two days. It feels a little strange how quickly he grew accustomed to having Baekhyun by his side practically constantly. He’s so lost in his thoughts he doesn’t notice Jongin falling into step beside him until he reaches out to lightly touch Yixing’s shoulder. Jerking out of his thoughts, Yixing snaps his attention to Jongin before relaxing again.

“Sorry Jongin, I’m too tense at the moment. Is everything ok?” Jongin’s expression has Yixing moving immediately into caring mode.

“Yeah, I’m okay, I’m not hurt. I just, we were killing bearers when we were killing those monsters weren’t we?” Jongin sighs, deeply.

Yixing is reluctant to answer Jongin’s question knowing the stress it will bring, but he has to be honest. “Yeah, they were,” he quietly answers. “The darkness has always attached itself to a host and the most capable to do anything are bearers and not the villagers in the medic rooms.”

Jongin frowns, looking even more sullen than before. He almost pauses in his steps, but Yixing keeps him moving forward. “Before everything happened, in the dining hall, I remember some of their faces. Some were right there with me as we tried to help the villagers.”

Yixing really didn’t want to think that far ahead, but now that Jongin’s brought it up, he has no choice. These monsters are bearers they _knew,_ more than just the people whose dreams are over. These are people who worked alongside them, laughter together with them and now any one of them could be gone. Yixing’s only hope is after all this is over that they can at least be turned back human if they’ve been killed already.

“When all this is done, we’ll make sure they’re able to rest in peace. They deserve a proper send off.” Yixing reaches out to squeeze Jongin’s hand and Jongin gives him a tiny smile in return, keeping their hands cupped. “It can be our promise to them. We’ll make sure whoever did this pays.”

“Thanks and you’re right. We need to get them before they can cause any more damage.”

Yixing nods in agreement. “Did you find anything else while you were with Sehun?”

“Not really. Just those, um, I don’t want to call them monsters or anything of the like.” Jongin’s lips flatten together as if he’s trying to think of a better name. “Just them. We didn’t find anyone who could help us.”

 _We really are all that’s left._ Yixing hums and can’t think of much else to say, but looks like Jongin doesn’t need him to speak as he swings their hands back and forth as they walk. It's nice to know that despite all the conflict Jongin has been exposed to, he maintains his sweet nature.

The rest of the journey back to Chanyeol and Kyungsoo is mostly uneventful, Baekhyun and Minseok handle the only creature they run into with ease and they make it back to the room without any further mishaps. Inside, Chanyeol is still sleeping and Kyungsoo hovers at his side, chewing on an energy bar. He stands hurriedly when everyone enters but sinks back into the chair when he sees everyone else. Yixing moves forward to check Chanyeol over but he's pleased to find there's nothing more he needs to do. Seemingly sensing that everyone has returned, Chanyeol stirs awake and sits himself upright.

“Thanks Yixing,” Chanyeol grins widely, clearly he feels very much like his old self. “Was a little worried for a minute there but I should have known you'd patch me up perfectly.”

The two share a small smile.

“Well, next time, don’t get hurt and you won’t have to worry.” Yixing knows that his friends won’t be overly reckless but he’s so conditioned to warn people that healers aren’t perfect that it slips through a little.

“Now that we know what we’re up against, I’ll know to approach more carefully. But thanks for putting me back together.” With a nod, Yixing moves to sit onto one of the other couches there. Steadily, everyone else does the same and once they’re all settled, it’s Baekhyun that speaks up first.

“So, now that we’ve all encountered them, the creatures that we’ve been fighting are corrupted bearers. From what we can tell, and what Yixing was able to read on them, the darkness has managed to align itself with the bearer’s own energy. It fetters and corrupts the bearer and turns them into whatever it is that we’ve been fighting. The only reason we found out about it is because me and Yixing did something similar with our own abilities by complete accident.” He pauses, and Jongdae jumps in.

“We tried to replicate it with me but something about our powers wasn’t compatible. It must only be between certain abilities. And I’m only guessing, but I think when they aren’t compatible, if they’re still forced together, something like what has happened with the darkness would have happened to me but it would have been Yixing’s ability that corrupted me.” Jongdae’s explanation has a few of the others nodding their understanding. Leaning forward, Yixing clarifies a few things on his end.

“I think because I was aware of Jongdae’s energy being exchanged with me, my own power worked to heal any damage he was causing, but it’s very risky to do it without being aware of it happening. I think it’s been kept secret from us, like the darkness’s evolution. The top officers have to be hiding something big behind their restricted doors. I think that our answers lie there and it’s best we skip out on leaving base and search those first.” Having spoken his thoughts, Yixing wonders if he sounds foolish. He certainly sounds suspicious and he wonders if he’s simply being paranoid. Before he can get too lost in his own thoughts, Junmyeon speaks up.

“I’m with you Yixing. Something is out of place here. There is no way the darkness should have been able to slip in so easily and spread so quickly. Someone must have known about it, and I’ll be betting it’s the officers.” Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the room and Yixing feels his spirits rise again. It’s nice to know that he’s been backed up by the rest of the makeshift team they’ve made.

“So let’s do this!” Jongdae is on his feet, ready to go and wanting to leave immediately but Minseok gently calms him.

“Let’s be more sensible, we should recoup, get something to eat and drink, make sure we’re all back to our top level.” The calm sensibility from Minseok spreads through everyone and Kyungsoo slips off to the kitchen to raid all the cupboards for supplies. Chanyeol easily follows, Yixing remembering them both being the best when it comes to the kitchen.

“I’ll go check the lounges in the western part of base. You said you really didn’t encounter anything but that one, right?” Jongin asks as he looks to Yixing who nods. He then pulls Sehun and Jongdae to his sides. “I’ll bring them for backup.”

“Why do I have to go back there?” Sehun whines.

“Because you can just blow them away.” Jongin doesn’t wait any longer as he teleports them to their destination, leaving an easily evaporating charcoal cloud behind. Yixing smiles to himself when he remembers Jongdae’s thumbs up and wide grin before leaving.

Yixing then heads to the kitchen where he finds Kyungsoo and Chanyeol both standing over the table filled with a variety of snacks and perishable foods. “Find anything good?” Yixing asks as he walks over. “Jongin took Sehun and Jongdae to the western lounge to see if there was more.”

“Oh good,” Kyungsoo sighs in relief. “There wasn’t much here but stuff to make light snacks. It wouldn’t have been enough for nine people.”

“Need any help?” Yixing asks. But before either Chanyeol or Kyungsoo can give him an answer, Baekhyun is popping into the kitchen and tugs on the back of Yixing’s robes, nearly startling Yixing. “Oh, Baekhyun, it’s just you. Don’t do that.”

Baekhyun just snickers. “I need to speak with you about something. Got a minute?”

“Let me know if you need anything.” Chanyeol gives a smile and Kyungsoo nods before Yixing makes his exit. “Is there something wrong?”

Yixing asks as they go to stand away from the others to not be heard.

“Did you think of anything else related to the darkness?”

“Not really,” Baekhyun answers and moves to sit on the ground. He pats the spot in front of him and Yixing plops down.

“Oh? Then what is it? Did you want to try exchanging energies again?” When Baekhyun shakes his head, Yixing is curious to what Baekhyun would want to talk about if it’s not to their energy or the darkness. “What else is there then?” he outright asks.

Baekhyun folds his hands into his lap and twiddles his thumbs. He takes a large breath.

“I want you to promise me something.”

 _Promise?_ “What do you mean?”

“I want you to promise me that you’ll live through this no matter what.”

“Well I don’t plan to die. I don’t think that needs a promise.”

Baekhyun shakes his head and takes one of Yixing’s hands into his own. “I don’t either but, I need to tell you something, something important after all of this is over. Like _really_ important on a personal level.”

“Why can’t you do that now?” Yixing questions. If it’s as important as Baekhyun is making this sound, then it shouldn’t wait. “Why does it have to wait?”

A pout instantly forms on Baekhyun’s lips.

“In case I somehow don’t make it, I don’t want to die with any regrets or leave you with any. Also stress. I need to be stress free and not—I want to be as focused as possible on the darkness, so promise me. ” He then grips Yixing’s hand a little too tightly, yet there’s still a softness to it. “Think of it as something to look forward to, so promise?”

Yixing is left speechless, trying to search his brain for anything Baekhyun related that will give him _any_ kind of clue that will help him figure out what Baekhyun would want to tell him after the darkness is hopefully defeated.

“Yixing, promise me.” The sincerity of Baekhyun’s tone twists deep into Yixing’s chest. He feels his heart crumble a little and he relents to Baekhyun’s desires.

“I promise that I will do whatever I can to live through this. And in return, I want you to do the same, for me.” Yixing isn’t sure where the second part comes from, he’s just desperate to have Baekhyun try to survive as well. A part of him has gotten so comfortable with Baekhyun’s new closeness to him and he files it away as something to analyse deeper when he’s not needed to be the strong and dependable healer that he has to be right now. Baekhyun pauses before looking up to meet Yixing’s eyes.

“I’ll do my best. Wouldn’t be much of a something to look forward to if I wasn’t there to tell it, hey?” Baekhyun flashes his signature smile and it’s all too easy to let himself smile in return. The following silence is comfortable and it’s broken by Jongin reappearing, Sehun and Jongdae in tow.

Jongdae’s hair is sticking up at all angles, the static electricity surrounding him practically fizzes. Jongin and Sehun don’t look much better off. Both of them are windswept and ruffled but there doesn’t appear to be any injuries. Clutched in their arms are a variety of different foods, bread seemingly being the main thing they had collected. The pop of their return has everyone coming back to the main room, helping them move the food safely into the kitchen. Before anyone can offer to help, Kyungsoo shoos everyone out besides Minseok with tea and a promise of some actual food. Small conversations break out as they wait, Yixing finds himself in the middle of Sehun and Jongin bickering about the fact that Jongin needs to give more warning before he teleports.

The argument seems a lot softer than previously, lacking any of the usual barbs typical of one of their disagreements. Sehun isn’t blaming Jongin’s lack of class and Jongin isn’t declaring Sehun to be some kind of prude so Yixing is more content to just let them talk around him. He contributes when he thinks he won’t offend either of them, glad that they’ve managed to work past some of their differences.

Across the room, Baekhyun, Junmyeon and Chanyeol are helping Jongdae restore his appearance back to something normal. Junmyeon uses his abilities to dampen down the excited hair on Jongdae’s head, leaving him a little soggy until Chanyeol conjures a small flame to dry it off. It’s a remarkably relaxed moment for how tense the situation has been and Yixing takes a moment to truly revel in it. In his usual fashion, Yixing begins to zone out, simply enjoying being amongst his closest friends. He’s snapped out of his own head by Sehun waving a hand in front of his face.

“I know you and Baekhyun are close now but I don’t know if staring blankly at him is the best way to get his attention.” A playful smirk teases at the corner of Sehun’s lips and Yixing shakes his head in response.

“Sorry, I just completely zoned out there.” Both Sehun and Jongin’s expressions turn mischievous and Yixing wonders what they’re planning.

“At least this time you didn’t zone out staring at Professor Lee’s ass.” Yixing feels his cheeks immediately colour at the memory he’s desperately tried to forget but Sehun is relentless. “Was the only time I’ve ever seen you get into serious trouble. Secretly lusting over a teacher had you in detention for like what, a week?”

“Professor Lee probably thought some one on one time would be the answer to stopping you from sexualising him in public.” Jongin jumps into the teasing, a gleeful smile spreading effortlessly over his face. With his face properly burning now, Yixing tries to hide in his hands. The detentions had been the one time he’d been properly punished in classes. No matter how hard he’d tried to reason that his tendency to drift and zone out was the reason his eyes had been looking where they’d been looking, Professor Lee had been having none of it.

“You know for a fact that I was in no way attracted to Professor Lee and that I was wrongfully framed in that lesson.” The long running joke had long since lost any of its actual sting and just served to make Yixing pretty embarrassed. Content to play along with the joke, Yixing defends himself simply. He’s saved from any more jibes by Kyungsoo and Minseok returning from the kitchen.

Kyungsoo carries a large pot of soup and Minseok has toasted bread and tea. It’s hearty food, making use of all the best ingredients to rebuild everyone’s energy. As they eat, Yixing does a final sweep of the room. Thankfully, everyone has remained uninjured since his last check. Worry lingers in the corners of Kyungsoo’s mind but the time he spends with an awake and unhurt Chanyeol will naturally soothe that, leaving Yixing with nothing to do but restore his own energy levels. As with all of Kyungsoo’s food, it’s delicious despite the simplicity. The warmth of the soup spreads through his muscles, easing them from the inside out.

Feeling full has everyone feeling sleepy but Junmyeon has the good sense to set up a watch before they sleep. Junmyeon and Sehun get first watch and Yixing settles into one of the couches. He glances around and sees Jongin and Baekhyun still moving around, tidying up while everyone else has already found their place on a couch. He notices the only one left is a three seater sofa. Naturally, Baekhyun and Jongin should take that considering they’re two people and it gives them a little bit of room unless one of them decides to take the floor, but Yixing can’t deny a part of him hopes that Baekhyun will come over and attempt to fit into the little space they have in favor of sharing with Jongin; it feels weird not having him close.

Yixing closes his eyes and it only takes a few minutes for him to feel the end of the couch dip and a hand gently tap his leg. He cracks open one eye to see the room has gone mostly dark minus wherever the light from the kitchen hits and Baekhyun sitting on the edge. Yixing contemplates pretending he’s asleep, but decides against it to see what Baekhyun wants.

“Did you need something?” Yixing asks quietly as he sits up and folds his legs in for Baekhyun to have more space. “We should be getting as much sleep as possible.”

“Oh nothing just—I um, wanted to be next to you. Feels weird without you near me, after everything that’s happened. More so after that energy exchange,” Baekhyun whispers as he maneuvers Yixing’s legs to sit on his lap so he can rest properly against the couch. “You can lie back down.”

Well, Yixing didn’t expect that kind of honest answer and Yixing would be lying if he said those words didn’t make him feel the teeniest bit happy. “Are you sure? Won’t sleeping like that be uncomfortable?”

“I’ll be fine. Just sleep Xing. I’ll probably end up sleeping to the side anyway.”

“Even with my legs weighing down your lap? Isn’t that uncomfortable? There has to be a more comfortable position.” Wordlessly, Baekhyun removes Yixing’s legs from his lap and motions Yixing over. Yixing scoots in close until their knees touch. “Now what?”

“You can rest your head in my lap instead then,” Baekhyun suggests as he pats his own legs. “It’ll be slightly better if you did that unless you don’t want to.”

There’s nothing wrong with it, right? Baekhyun is overly touchy and it’ll probably bring Baekhyun a sense of comfort and ease before they set out to find out what the higher ups are hiding. Yixing adjusts himself so his head rests on Baekhyun’s lap and it’s oddly more cozy than the position he had been in before. Yixing can see the smile on Baekhyun’s face and he returns it as Baekhyun begins carding his fingers through his hair. It’s soothing and warm thanks to the little sparks of light he can feel against his scalp. And Yixing soon finds himself falling asleep.

It doesn’t feel like long has passed when Sehun is shaking him awake with an all too smug grin on his face. Grogginess clouds his vision and the room feels a little too dark with no light coming in from the windows. With a mostly silent groan, Yixing pulls himself back upright to see Junmyeon gently shaking Minseok awake as well. It would appear he’s being much gentler than Sehun was to Yixing. Luckily, Baekhyun only makes a light noise in his sleep and doesn’t protest too much at Yixing lifting his head from his lap.

“It’s your turn for watch, wake whoever after a little while as long as it’s not me.” Sehun hurriedly whispers into Yixing’s ear before he slinks over to the empty space next to Jongin. Picking himself up off the couch, Yixing lightly shakes his head in an effort to chase some of the drowsiness away and wake himself up a bit more. By the time he joins Minseok, sitting and leaning against the wall near the door, most of the sleepiness has faded.

They sit in silence for some time, allowing Junmyeon and Sehun to fall asleep easier in the quiet. Junmyeon takes Minseok’s single seat, curling into himself like he usually does when he sleeps and Sehun takes as much space on the sofa as he can without kicking Jongin straight off it. Watching everyone’s breath steady out, Yixing smiles softly as he watches Baekhyun huff and chase what remains of Yixing’s body heat by turning into where he’d previously been. When it seems that everyone is once again asleep, Minseok lightly nudges Yixing. With a quick gesture, Minseok slips into the corridor and Yixing follows. It’s mercifully empty, someone must have moved every bearer asleep whilst Kyungsoo was cooking. Minseok slides back into sitting and Yixing braves the colder floor to join him.

“Ahh, sorry, the tiles are probably a bit cold. Didn’t think about that bit.” Minseok’s voice is soft as it breaks the silence.

“Don’t worry about it, I can handle it.” Yixing stretches his legs out in front of him, enjoying the pull in his muscles. Yesterday had been a good opportunity to push his body and he can feel it lingering. It dissipates when he realises it, his energy working away any aches and keeping him at the top of his capacity.

“I thought it would be easier to talk out here, and I didn’t want to risk waking any of the others.” The obvious care Minseok is showing has Yixing smiling. Historically, Minseok hadn’t ever been the loudest or the showiest, but he’s always thinking of the others before himself. It meant Yixing had to patch him up a few more times, but it was always admirable that Minseok chose to put other’s safety first.

“I think the others would appreciate it. Was there something you wanted to talk about?” Trying to keep his own tone soft, Yixing isn’t sure if Minseok wants a heavy discussion or not. His words are met with a soft chuckle.

“Just wanted to comment on you and Baekhyun. Seems like you’ve finally caved and let him get close.” There’s no teasing in Minseok’s words thankfully, and Yixing stares at the wall in front of him before deciding to simply be honest.

“Yeah, I guess I have. I don’t even really know why I was so adamant about keeping him at a distance to be honest. I guess I really was simply jealous of what he’d been able to do, and how well he’d mastered it.” Yixing lets himself reminisce on the brief memories of classes that spring to mind.

“It’s funny really. We were all being jealous of both of you. The masterful light bearer in Baekhyun with control and raw energy that hadn’t been seen in years and you, the rare unrivalled healer who was constantly adapting to become better and better.” Turning to Minseok, Yixing’s surprise must have been obvious on his face and Minseok laughs again. “Don’t act so shocked, you were both doing things even the teachers had no idea how to respond to. The first time you summoned your blades, our combat teacher nearly passed out. I can remember fighting against you with them amazed that you’d manage to create something like that out of your ability.”

Yixing shakes his head at Minseok’s words. When he remembers that class, he recalls horror in the expression of everyone else, not amazement.

“I always thought people were fearful of the way I could weaponise it. Healers are supposed to be all happy and soft, pure energy and there I was, shaping blood red knives with it.” A wry smile twists Yixing’s lips as he tries to switch his memories into something different.

“Oh no, it was definitely awe. There’s nothing fun about being able to make something so easy to weaponize like ice or fire into an attacking force. Taking your energy and making it protect you was so cool. It’s what made me work on my shielding and such more. I wanted to be more rounded like you were.” Yixing’s eyebrows rise at Minseok’s confession and Minseok playfully shoves Yixing's shoulder. “You were too busy being hard on yourself to see how proud we all were. I’m glad you’re hearing it now at least.”

Warmth fizzles through Yixing and he leans into Minseok playfully.

“That’s enough of the praise, it’ll all go to my head and then where would we be?” Both shake lightly with quiet laughter.

“In all seriousness, I’m glad you and Baekhyun seem close. It’s nice that he’s not pining anymore.”

“I never meant to be so cold, I feel like the bad guy now.” Pouting, Yixing focuses his gaze back out one of the windows. It’s still black outside despite definitely having approached the time when the sun should be up. “Wait, Minseok, shouldn’t the sun be rising by now?”

“Huh?” Minseok glances at his wrist where the watch ticks away. “Yeah, that should definitely be happening. Why is it so dark still?”

“The prophecy.” Yixing barely whispers. “It’s the prophecy. We have to move.”

Minseok nods in understanding before the two are standing and rushing back into the room to wake everyone. When Yixing feels the temperature in the room drop to drastically freezing all of a sudden, he knows it’s Minseok’s doing. It’s a bit unconventional and Yixing would have rather woken them all up one by one, but Minseok’s plan seems to work as everyone is startled and wide awake as they all move toward the center of the lounge. Yixing doesn’t flinch as a shivering Baekhyun attaches himself to his arm.

“What the hell Minseok?” Chanyeol shivers as a flame slowly forms above his palm before it’s carefully circling the room to incase everyone. “What’d you do that for?”

“It’s dark out. _It’s still dark out,_ ” Minseok answers and points to the window. “It should be daylight by now.”

“Are you sure?” Jongdae asks. “We’ve been running around all day and we could be a tad confused and not have noticed it’s only been a short while or even days blurring together.”

“No, he’s right—the sun should have definitely risen by now,” Junmyeon states and looks to his own watch. “We could have been running around for a month, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it should be daylight right now.”

“Then what do we do?” Kyungsoo asks. “It was mentioned earlier we should go to the higher ups’ offices and see if we can find anything there.”

“It’s our best bet to finding out what’s going on before heading out and searching other villages for clues if there’s really nothing here like Yixing mentioned before.” Junmyeon lets out a large sigh before continuing, “Even if there’s nothing darkness related, maybe at the very least there’s something about the energy exchange that happened between Baekhyun and Yixing and if other bearers can do it as well.”

Yixing knows if they had more time, they’d be seeing which powers were compatible instead of rushing off to fight. Not wanting to waste any more time chatting, Yixing says, “Then let’s move out.”

As soon as the words leave Yixing’s lips, everyone is already walking to and out of the door.

Chanyeol takes the lead, using his fire to light the way; the lanterns that light the corridors have all gone out by now and the moonlight simply isn’t enough. Baekhyun rounds out the back, using his ability as a light source as well. Yixing knows he should stay guarded towards the center along with Jongin and listen Kyungsoo speak of where those creatures might appear since his role as healer is vital, but he can’t help but linger back towards Baekhyun. He wonders if it’s a side effect of wanting to be close despite the dangerous circumstances; he can _still_ feel Baekhyun’s own energy radiate within himself.

When Yixing turns to ask Baekhyun if he can still feel his energy within him, an ear piercing scream interrupts his thought.

“We’re close,” Kyungsoo says, tone hushed. “Be on guard.”

Kyungsoo’s words have Yixing’s hair standing on end and he instantly forgets about asking Baekhyun anything. It would appear everyone else has a similar idea, as a hushed silence falls over their group. They steadily advance down the corridor, the temperature dropping as they progress. Something about the lack of any creatures has everyone especially tense. Chanyeol kicks his fire up a notch, lighting the full stretch of the corridor and the imposing door part way down, behind which the officials had always kept their secrets.

Quietly, trying their best to remain composed and silent, their motley group fanned out around the door. Junmyeon and Minseok slip towards the door, Junmyeon gingerly trying the handle. It’s definitely locked as Junmyeon huffs a small sigh and summons water into his palm. Pushing the water forward and into the lock, Junmyeon shifts slightly to the side to allow Minseok to step forward and freeze the water Junmyeon had filled the lock with. The sound of metal cracking under the expansion of the ice has everyone tensing again and closing his fist, Minseok completely shatters what remained of the lock. With nothing holding the door closed anymore, it lightly swings open towards them. A roar sounds from very close by, and it’s Sehun’s shout that draws everyone’s attention. Creatures pour down the corridor from both ends and everyone snaps into full blown combat.

The space comes alive with the colours of everyone fighting. Sounds of the conflict echo everywhere, blowing any chance of any kind of stealth. Yixing slides the blades into being with ease and steps up alongside Baekhyun and Jongdae to work on one side. Slipping forward, Yixing weaves effortlessly around Jongdae’s lightning bolts and strikes, and Baekhyun’s whip like light. Not pausing to think about what he’s doing, Yixing stabs his blades into creature after creature as the seemingly endless wave crashes over them. Dancing out of reach of one particular swipe, Yixing feels heat shoot past his cheek as Baekhyun sends a direct beam into the face of the creature attacking him. Yixing naturally flinches back from the body, expecting a splattering of black blood to shower over him from Baekhyun’s attack but nothing comes.

Eyebrows furrowing, Yixing slices one of his blades through the neck of the nearest creature expecting more blood, but once again, he’s greeted by nothing. With a small gasp, Yixing realises that what they’re fighting isn’t real, isn’t actually the creatures they’d been fighting before. It had to be something triggered by them getting into the lab. Dodging attacks as much as he can, Yixing works his way back to the group.

“It’s a mirage! They’re not real! Get through the door!” Doing his best to stem the flow of their assailants, Yixing pushes Jongdae back towards the door with his free hand. Baekhyun, noticing what Yixing was trying to do, splays his fingers and works on creating a shield. Together, they force everyone through the swinging door before falling through it themselves.

Once inside, silence falls. No evidence of the creatures reaches them. Chanyeol and Baekhyun quickly light the room and Yixing takes in how ordinary it looks. A few bookcases packed with books and odd items, a table with stacks of folders and test tubes, glass cabinets lined with vials of liquid. It’s like any other lab at base, a little on the smaller side, but there _has_ to be more. Apparently everyone else also has the same idea in mind as they begin searching different areas of the room.

Yixing starts with the table and going through the stack of papers along with Minseok.

“These don’t seem to be about much,” Minseok comments as he flips through papers. “This folder is just about past missions.”

“Same here,” Yixing says and continues skimming through the pages and pages of random notes. “Maybe there will be something important highlighted.” And yet, after minutes upon minutes of looking through folders and files, nothing striking stands out. “There’s nothing,” he sighs. Yixing glances around the room and it doesn’t seem like anyone else is having much luck either. He walks over to Sehun who has his ear against one of the bookcases. “Did you find something?”

“Maybe. There’s air behind this thing,” Sehun answers and starts tossing books to the ground. “There’s got to be a lever somewhere.” Yixing wordlessly tosses books to the floor in the same manner as Sehun, checking if there’s no one behind him each time. When every single book is pulled from the case, there’s not a single lever or anything close to it in sight.

“Are you sure there’s air?”

“I can feel it, but it’s not enough to break this from the wall.” Sehun tsks and keeps examining the empty bookcase. “Chanyeol, get over here!”

It only takes a few seconds for Chanyeol to appear in between Sehun and Yixing with Kyungsoo behind him. “What’s going on?” Chanyeol asks. “Find something?”

“Give me more light,” Sehun simply states and Chanyeol does as told. Yixing watches as Sehun eyes over every shelf more carefully than before until he reaches the second to last one. He pushes his finger against a spot and it pops open, revealing a keyhole. “Aha! Found it!” He celebrates with a mini victory dance despite being stooped on the ground. “But we need a key.”

“You think it’s hollow back there?” Kyungsoo questions as he steps in front of Chanyeol to check out the bookcase, touching and moving it. “It’s sealed to the ground unlike the other ones.”

“Yeah. I can manipulate the air that’s back there.”

“Okay, stand back.”

When Yixing and Sehun stand off to the side, Chanyeol pulls them even further back. It seems unnecessary until Kyungsoo is ripping the bookcase from the ground, pieces of it flying in the air. Kyungsoo throws the bookcase as low to the floor as possible.

“What happened over here?” Junmyeon asks as he comes rushing over.

“Sehun found something,” Kyungsoo informs and steps into the tiny corridor he’s just uncovered.

Panic flashes across Chanyeol’s face as Kyungsoo just casually steps into the new passage but nothing happens as Kyungsoo takes his first few steps. The corridor is barely big enough to fit two people standing shoulder to shoulder and Chanyeol is quick to catch Kyungsoo’s shoulder to stop him going any further.

“Let’s maybe take this one a little slower, Soo.” The obvious care and concern Chanyeol has for Kyungsoo bleeds into his tone and Yixing feels his own heart clench for them. Stepping forward, Yixing joins them in the corridor.

“Let me and Jongin go first. Jongin can get himself out and I can focus on healing myself so let us go first in case there is anything to worry about.” Volunteering Jongin sits uncomfortably with Yixing but Jongin is by his side in a second.

“Yeah, let us worry about going first. You guys can follow once we know it’s safe.” Jongin beams his usual smile, seemingly not nervous about the whole scenario. With a shared glance between Kyungsoo and Chanyeol, Kyungsoo eventually sighs and flattens his back against the wall to let them pass. Dropping a grateful nod in Kyungsoo’s direction, Yixing moves forward past them, Jongin right by his side. Their shoulders bump as they walk, the passage is clearly not designed for multiple people to be travelling down it at once. When they come to a corner in the road, Jongin grabs Yixing’s sleeve to stop him.

“Let me check first. I can pop back if there’s anything there.” Jongin’s words are barely above a whisper but in the hush of the tiny space, Yixing hears him fine. A gentle nod has Jongin slipping along the wall, leaning against it when he can go no further. Risking a glance around the corner, Yixing watches the tension bleed out of Jongin’s shoulders. “It’s just more corridor, then I think there’s a staircase downwards at the end.”

The explanation is more than enough for Yixing to move back up to Jongin’s side and they move with more haste as they approach the staircase. Cold air drifts up to snake it’s way around their ankles and the uneasy trepidation settles back in. Jongin takes the lead again, content to be able to get himself out if he needs to and the spiralling staircase heads only downwards, so that’s the way Jongin goes. Following closely behind him, Yixing keeps himself on a high alert, his energy brimming at the surface.

The steps are made of metal, unlike the stone walls and flooring they were navigating earlier and it’s a fight to keep their footsteps as quiet as they’d like them to be. Descending down the stairs, lights flicker to life alongside them, as if triggered by their motion. It cancels any hope of a surprise attack but Yixing is more grateful he isn’t relying on Chanyeol’s flame behind him anymore and can actually confidently place his feet.

When they reach the bottom, a long passage extends in front, wider than the last one by far. Yixing wonders how much further they have to go until they find something other than walls and stairs. Jongin leads as they continue their journey down the long hall. It’s quite dusty and Yixing figures no one but a few of the higher ups come down here often. After seeing the lengths they’re going through just to get to whatever’s hidden, it must mean it’s at least important enough to investigate.

“It’s a dead end,” Jongin whispers. “What do we do?”

“There has to be a secret passage somewhere,” Yixing says as he begins running his hand over the wall before them. “It wouldn’t make sense that they went through all the trouble to make this only to lead to a dead end.”

“True.” Jongin then mimics Yixing’s actions.

It takes a few minutes, but Yixing finally reaches a stone in the wall that isn’t quite like the others; it feels somewhat wooden and when Yixing knocks on it it sounds hollow. He then uses both hands and wiggles the false stone out of place to reveal a small lever.

“Hey, Jongin, there’s a lever,” Yixing says quietly. “I’ll pull it and if anything tries to get us, just pop us back to the others.”

Jongin nods and stands behind Yixing, giving him just enough space to pull the lever and slowly walk back with the stone wall. Thankfully, nothing comes at them and Yixing breathes a sigh of relief. Jongin then leads once again as they make their way down a shorter corridor with a few turns and more stairs. It’s getting annoying with how much dedication they’ve put in to keep this a secret. Yixing almost complains out loud until Jongin stops, causing him to do so as well. He looks forward to what looks like a giant steel door. It’s weird that it’s unguarded and appears to have no locks. Jongin even tugs on the handle a bit and it actually moves.

“You think this is a trap?” Jongin asks and crosses his arms across his chest before attempting to even crack open the door. “It’s so, I don’t know. It looks easy to get into.”

“It could be, but it’s worth checking out after all those stairs and walls,” Yixing reasons. “I’ll go first.”

Yixing grabs the door handle, cautiously pushing it forward until it’s open enough for him to slip inside, Jongin following right behind. The space beyond is white, unlike the drab greys of the stone from before. It’s so much cleaner than anything before, Yixing is aware that they’ve found something they were likely looking for. Doors line either side of the hallway, small windows set into them but from where they stand so close to the entrance, Yixing can’t see anything inside the adjoining rooms.

“Should we get the others?” Jongin’s words are soft, still aware that they could be overheard.

“Yeah, can you tell them to come? Don’t jump them all, just come back normally, I don’t want you to wear yourself out before anything happens.” Yixing gives Jongin a small smile as the younger nods and immediately disappears. Resigning himself to a short wait for them to catch up to them, Yixing slips forward as gently as he can. He takes a few quiet steps toward the first room, straining his ears to hear any other movements around him. Nothing comes back to him, so he advances the rest of the way to the closest door on the right.

The door seems pretty nondescript. It’s a simple white metal door fitted into the wall with a small square window at face level. What lies beyond the window has Yixing gasping.

It’s a mostly empty room, besides for a central table or bed, Yixing isn’t quite sure what it is. Someone lies on the bed, someone he recognises. Yifan, a member of their class, is stretched out over the table. He’s clearly unconscious but when Yixing looks closely, he watches Yifan’s chest weakly rise and fall. But that isn’t what horrifies Yixing. The large machine besides Yifan is what has Yixing’s breath catching in his throat.

It’s connected to Yifan via a clasp around his wrist and seems to be drawing his energy from him. One side of the machine has the orange energy Yixing remembers as Yifan’s, the other is pure, ashy smoke. It looks like the exact colour of the darkness dripping from the creatures in the hallways. Yixing isn’t sure how the machine works, whether it’s taking Yifan’s energy or replacing it with the darkness but all he knows is it is not ok for his former friend to have his energy outside his body.

Fighting down the instinct to just break into the room, Yixing slowly unclenches his hands and steps back. It doesn’t make sense to just launch in by himself, so he forces himself to wait for everyone else to arrive. With his skin still prickling, he moves from window to window. Several of the rooms are empty, white walls and empty tables staring back at him, almost taunting him. The other rooms contain bearers of all kinds. Five of the twelve rooms are occupied with strong and reputable bearers, all of them unconscious and with at least part of their energy drained. People Yixing admired or respected, laid out having their energy stripped away.

Yixing is harshly broken from his thoughts by the sound of the others arriving. Moving back from the latest window he had been looking through, Yixing joins them by the door. His expression must betray his anger as Junmyeon has a hand on his arm before Yixing is even able to speak.

“Are you ok?” Junmyeon’s tone breaks something in Yixing, and in reply, he just wordlessly points at the door that holds Yifan. Minseok is closest and gasps when he sees what’s beyond the glass. At Minseok’s reaction, everyone else crowds around the window. Their reactions are similar ones of outrage and disbelief. “Let’s keep moving.”

“Keep moving? We need to help them now.” Minseok’s voice cracks yet the anger isn’t missed. “We can’t leave them like this. _That’s Yifan in there._ And—”

 _“We keep moving,”_ Junmyeon commands. He looks over everyone as he continues, “We don’t know how their powers have been extracted and what tampering with anything could do to them. The best thing to do is to keep moving if we want any chance of saving them.”

Minseok frowns and gives a stiff nod as does everyone else from what Yixing can see. Junmyeon takes the lead to start walking and it’s hard for Yixing to move, to leave Yifan and the others behind when he desperately wants to help. Regret washes over him and how he should have checked in with Yifan more, with Song Qian, with Hakyeon, with the rest who all lie nearly motionless. It isn’t until Baekhyun is threading their fingers together and nudging them both forward that Yixing takes the first step to follow the others. He didn’t even notice him arriving with the others.

They check one of the empty rooms first, finding nothing. The same goes for the next five rooms and Yixing wants to say it’s all pointless and they should just see if there’s other experiments going on elsewhere down here until they reach the last room. There, Jongin picks up the only thing left behind—a single folder containing quite a few pieces of papers. Yixing can tell Jongin is reading whatever he’s found over and over, mouth dropping opening with each new page flipped.

“What is it Jongin?” Minseok asks as he peeks at the folder’s contents as well. “I can’t read any of it; it’s in the old script.”

“They wanted Sehun,” Jongin mumbles. “There are notes for Chanyeol and Junmyeon as well. Here.” He hands the folder over to Junmyeon. “It’s got pros and cons of taking them and needing different types of energies. They even have dates of when to possibly get you down here. Chanyeol’s is supposedly today.”

The room goes quiet as everyone takes in the new piece of information. _They planned to take more of us?_ It’s almost too wild to believe, but this very room being kept a secret and their fellow bearers lying motionless on tables is proof enough. _But why?_ Yixing doesn’t understand why their commanders would want to hurt and destroy them like this. They’re supposed to be bearers and protect people. Baekhyun squeezes down on Yixing’s hand and gives him a tiny smile of comfort.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Junmyeon states with a firm nod. “Something might have gone wrong on their end considering Chanyeol is with us and this room is unguarded. Let’s quickly search the rest of this area and head back. Jongin, go back to Chanyeol and tell them to be on high alert.”

Jongin gives a thumbs up before vanishing and the rest head to to search the rest of the lab. At his disappearance, Yixing finally realises that Chanyeol and Kyungsoo aren’t with them. Clearly, they’d been left on guard at the entrance, a smart choice by Junmyeon. As everyone else files out of the room, Yixing feels the idea of a schedule whirl through his head.

A schedule would likely suggest this is the work of multiple people, and it’s not hard to work out that the upper officials are likely the ones running this operation. Trying his best to think of everything that has happened, it’s hard to see the secret work happening here as anything positive. Forcefully removing a bearer’s energy would be like removing an organ. Yixing has heard of it happening only once before because of a bearer going rogue and trying to fight against other bearers. The result hadn’t been pretty, it had left the rogue bearer essentially zombified, unable to do anything without outside help. Death would have been a kinder punishment.

But no matter how hard Yixing tries to adjust the plans, the mass wave of unconsciousness was likely unplanned. Even if the officials had been aware it was possible, the timing was bizarre. Many bearers were out on missions, and far enough out of reach to not be affected. The numbers were likely high enough that they’d have been a considerable force to fight back against whatever had been happening at the base. So what had happened to cause things to progress as much as they had?

A squeeze to his hand brings him out of his thoughts, and Yixing is greeted by a small smile from Baekhyun.

“Don’t think too hard, you’ll hurt yourself.” The joke is half hearted but it still manages to break through Yixing’s gloomy head space.

“Ok then, you can think with me.” Yixing leans back against one of the bare walls, not unlacing their fingers. “Why did the sleep happen when it happened? It seems a really weird time to have happened, a lot of bearers are still out doing missions and surely, they’d want to ensure a minimal force left over to fight back against whatever they were planning.”

Baekhyun hums as he tilts his head to think.

“Using your logic, that would mean that something either went wrong, or they were suddenly very confident that it would work regardless. The fact that we’re awake makes me think it’s the former.” Baekhyun’s point settles in line with what Yixing had been moving towards himself. Humming gently, Yixing presses on.

“So, if something went wrong, what would it have been? The creatures appeared after the sleep so it’s unlikely one of them got free and started spreading darkness, and even if it did, surely the number of creatures would have been higher than what we witnessed.” A small noise of agreement has Yixing continuing. “I think the most likely thing is that they had this ready to go, and someone activated it early. They’d managed to distill some kind of energy in such a way to react with people and knock a large number of people out and were waiting to use it. Something went wrong or someone went rogue and they used it early. That would explain why some of the higher ups were in the office with Minseok and Junmyeon when it happened.”

As far as ideas go, it’s the best that Yixing can come up with. There’s a lot of information that they’re still missing so Yixing doubts he’ll be able to flesh out the theory until they find something else. Baekhyun moves to come and lean beside him and as he presses his weight into the wall, it shifts beneath their weight. Both of them stagger a little at the wall moving, stepping away from it. A shared look has them both pressing against the side Baekhyun had leant against. Beneath their shared effort, the door shifts and turns and opens out to another hallway.

To begin with, it appears just like the one they’d come from, except at the end is a large door. The bottom edge of the door leaks blood, Yixing immediately knows that’s what it is by the smell and the way his energy leaps into life. Both of them freeze at the sight before them. More of the doors from before, line the sides, darkness leaching out from the door frames.

“Get the others.” Yixing whispers to Baekhyun, barely audible. The hallway is eerily silent, and Yixing is aware that there’s no way they’re moving forward alone. When Baekhyun makes no move to leave, Yixing dares tear his gaze away from the blood and over to Baekhyun. “Please Baekhyun, we can’t do this without them.”

“Do not move Yixing. I mean it. Don’t move.” Baekhyun roughly takes Yixing's hand and squeezes it before backing into the room and getting the others. For once, Yixing listens to Baekhyun. He knows that whatever is likely beyond the doors, he can’t face alone. Taking a few deep breaths, Yixing pulls his ability to the surface. Before the urge to move becomes too much, everyone joins him, even Jongin, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo.

“Ok, let’s go.” The air charges with everyone calling their abilities to life, and Yixing gently creeps forward. As Yixing creeps forward, he feels the blood soak into the simple shoes he wears and grimaces. The metal of the large door is freezing to the touch, but with Minseok’s help, they drag the heavy door open. The sight beyond has even Yixing awestruck.

Countless bodies litter the floor. Some are mostly whole, others have been torn limb from limb. The floor is a small river of blood, interspersed with patches of darker liquid, alike that of the creature’s blood. Yixing’s energy tentatively reaches out but he already knows that none of these people are alive. The edge prickles and he spins to see Sehun has staggered backwards, gagging. A gentle hand on his shoulder eases the nausea but he can’t do much for the horror. After a pause, slowly everyone calms down.

 _“Fucking hell,”_ Kyungsoo whispers as he’s the first to move forward, carefully watching his step as he begins to navigate through the bodies. Chanyeol follows close behind, fire radiating lightly from his fingertips. “Don’t throw up,” he says as he glances back at Chanyeol.

“I’m trying not to,” Chanyeol mumbles back. It must be why the flames remain low and keep flickering in and out, for Chanyeol to use as a distraction.

Yixing could surely use one; he finds himself scanning the room once more for any sign of life knowing he won’t find a single heartbeat. It takes Baekhyun pushing him forward to follow the rest of their friends and Yixing wonders just how many bearers were down here by choice, how many were unwillingly led to their deaths as the bodies don’t seem to come to an end. The more they walk, the angrier Yixing feels and he tries to focus on the hushed whispers of their friends and Baekhyun’s energy within himself to remain calm and concentrate on what’s ahead. Yixing then notices Jongdae lagging behind just as much as he and Baekhyun are.

“Something feels off,” Jongdae mutters more to himself than anyone else. “Why would they just kill each other until there was no one left? Not even one survivor?” He then stops, Baekhyun and Yixing almost crashing into him. Luckily, Yixing balances them both.

“What’s wrong Dae?” Baekhyun asks, placing his hand on top of Jongdae’s shoulder. “You see something?”

Jongdae shakes his head. “Something isn’t right. I don’t know what, but it’s creepy.”

“There’s dead bodies everywhere; it’s bound to be a bit creepy,” Baekhyun tries to half joke. “We should keep moving and not fall behind. There’s a lot of ground to cover in this room.”

“Baekhyun’s right, we should—” Yixing stops speaking when he swears he hears a rumbling noise sounding _very_ close. He tunes out whatever Baekhyun and Jongdae are talking about and hears it again. “Did you guys hear that?”

“Hear what?” Baekhyun and Jongdae both ask, tone hushed.

“That noise. It sounds like a rumble or gurgle maybe.”

“I don’t hear anything,” Baekhyun says and nudges Yixing by the small of his back. “It could be your healer instincts, wishing someone was still alive and—” Baekhyun stills, brow furrowing in concentration and Yixing looks to Jongdae and sees him do the same. When Junmyeon approaches them and opens his mouth, Jongdae quickly covers it with his hand. “Hear that?” Baekhyun whispers.

Junmyeon swats Jongdae’s hand away. “We don’t have time for you to listen to strange noises,” he scolds. “We need to keep moving and maybe find someone alive to explain all of this. Now, let’s go.” Just as Junmyeon turns to walk away from the three bearers, an all too loud pained gurgle sounds throughout the room and he freezes right along with everyone else. Their energies rise to the surface as a large, black figure begins to rise from a pile of bodies.

Whatever it was before, it’s clearly not fully human now. It towers over even Chanyeol, easily breaking seven feet tall, and it’s obvious it was not meant to be that way. The legs are bent and twisted into something close to a wolf’s structure, an extra joint forming to hold its weight more securely. The muscles and sinews are drawn out and overly visible and Yixing thanks years of being shown medical injuries to prevent any kind of gag response. Darkness coagulates over it’s skin, healing and holding together what would otherwise have torn the body apart. It’s clearly strengthening everything as well, the muscular structure is bulky and strong. Scraps of clothing hang around the torso and upper legs, and when Yixing manages to see what it’s wearing, a gasp springs from him unbounded.

“It’s the Commander.” He chokes out the words and he feels his friends shock rather than hears it. Unknowingly, his energy had spread out from him, checking on all of them. At the noise, the creature turns menacingly towards them, and it’s face has Yixing’s blades springing into life in his hands. Pitch black eyes stare back at him, darkness dripping from the corners and from its mouth. Fangs replace the teeth and a long tongue snakes out to catch the dripping black. When it sets its gaze onto the nine of them, it throws its head back in an obnoxious laugh that reverberates through Yixing’s bones.

“Of course it would be you.” It’s voice booms, deep and gravelly. “The strongest ones of their age. Couldn’t just keep your noses out of this. I knew we should have drained you first.” 

As it speaks, the darkness congeals tighter around it, reinforcing it.

“What the fuck have you done here?!” Jongdae screams the words, and everyone’s attention snaps to him. His outburst draws more laughter from the Commander.

“Ask your little healer. I’m sure he’s worked it out by now.” The Commander grins as he watches them all turn back to Yixing.

“You pulled their energy from them, corrupted it with the darkness, and then replaced it. That’s what those bearers we ran into upstairs were. But it doesn’t explain why you’ve become this.” Yixing’s brain is working as fast as he can, his own energy dancing around the Commander. With another laugh, the Commander levels his gaze at Yixing.

“Very well, let me show you.”

  
  


_Suddenly, the ground is clear and Yixing isn’t aware of his own body anymore. Distantly, he remembers that the Commander was also a light bearer. Able to bend light in such a way he could actively show you things that weren’t there, or from his memories. This must be him showing Yixing what happened._

_The Commander stands as Yixing remembers him, tall, sturdy and surrounded by other officials. They’re talking about some kind of breakout, a bearer that hadn’t been completely corrupted._

_“It’s fine, the darkness will spread and then they will sleep. Who cares if it’s sooner than planned, we can handle it.” An official at the commanders side brags carelessly. Others look more concerned at the sudden change in plan. The Commander claps a hand onto the shoulder of one that had spoken earlier._

_“Relax everyone, I’m sure it’ll be fine. If it all goes wrong, I will handle it.” Dread settles over Yixing. Knowing the outcome makes watching this feel so wrong. The somewhat calm atmosphere is shattered when someone wearing an officer's uniform staggers into the room. They’re clearly injured, an arm wrapped around their waist hides what is clearly a bad wound._

_“It’s gotten out of hand! They’re out, they’re coming.” The newcomer coughs badly, blood leaking from their injuries. Clearly that had taken everything they had as they fall to their knees and slump over. The door hangs open and a roar can be heard through it. All the rooms that had darkness around them swing open and creature after creature pours out. What ensues is pure chaos, fighting from every direction and Yixing feels himself start to shake. Desperate to get out of what he’s being forced to witness, Yixing’s energy swirls but he can’t access it._

_Suddenly pure white light fills the entirety of his vision and Yixing jerks back._

  
  


Suddenly thrown back to the present, Yixing comes around to Baekhyun staring deeply into his eyes. Just like before, Baekhyun’s energy zips alongside his own, lighting him up from the inside out. It pushes away any of the disgust from the vision he’d been shown until all Yixing can focus on is the light flashing through him. Gasping, Baekhyun draws back but the same bond from earlier burns through them. Yixing can feel his own disgust and anger alongside Baekhyun’s and when he turns back to the Commander, there must be something on his face that gives away what has happened. The Commander throws his head back and roars in laughter.

“So it’s you two! You’re the fucking missing link. Well, what does it matter now.” The Commander trails off and sinks lower into a more aggressive stance. “I won’t hesitate regardless.”

Without any further warning, the Commander raises his hands and roars. The room trembles around them and they all watch in horror as the corpses that haven’t been torn apart, climb back to their feet. Darkness drips from their mouths and their hands twist into claws. Another roar from the Commander has everyone advancing on them and it’s clear that this is going to get messy.

Energy surges to the surface and Yixing is amazed to see his blades practically glowing. Baekhyun’s influence is clearly the strongest it’s been and Yixing spirals as he sinks his knives into corrupted bearer after bearer. Knowing that they were already lost doesn’t lessen the guilt he feels as he forces his way towards the Commander. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches his friends all fighting as hard as possible. A hard back thunks into his own and Yixing whips his head to find Baekhyun there.

“I’m with you, let’s do this.”

The words are few, but it gives Yixing all the more energy and courage to continue to fight his—no, _their_ way through to the Commander. The nine of them are in this together. It takes all Yixing has to continue to not think about the bearers he’s killing and just _fight_ . If they don’t, bearers, the villagers, _no one_ will have a real future. So he dodges and cuts and pushes his way through. The scrape on his cheek doesn’t matter nor does the tear in his robe when a creature swipes at his arm and rips it.

Baekhyun’s own energy running through him and staying calm helps Yixing keep a level head and evade the next creature to attack, quickly slashing its neck as soon as it’s close enough. There’s a moment of pause he takes to gather his surroundings to see that everyone is still a bit too far from the Commander, Junmyeon and Minseok being the closest, before another creature is leaping towards him. Yixing swipes his blade across the creature’s stomach and then upwards to finish it off. He uses a similar tactic for the next few, taking a few seconds every now and then to check on Baekhyun, until he sees the Commander isn’t too far off from the nine of them. They can have him surrounded, Yixing thinks and combines their abilities to finish him off.

Just as he finishes off a creature, another appears at his side to slice heavily across his abdomen as he turns. Yixing holds in the curse he wants to yell out and jabs the creature in its eye for it to gurgle out a pained scream as he puts some distance between them. It then rushes at him and that’s all Yixing needs to slice the creature at its neck. The creature falls with a horrid cry, grabbing and ripping the leg of his robes. Yixing then quickly ties the broken fabric at his stomach to cover up the wound he now has.

“Yixing!” Baekhyun shouts as he rushes toward him. “You alright?”

“I just got cut on my leg. Nothing serious,” Yixing lies, even pointing at his leg. He can already feel his body quickly trying to repair itself, but that’s hard to do when he’s using energy to fight.

“But I felt—”

Baekhyun’s words are cut off when yet another creature jumps towards the both of them, fangs exposed and looking to land on Baekhyun’s shoulder. Baekhyun winds his whip around the creature and restrains it, toppling it to the ground, so Yixing can finish it off with a cut to its neck.

“Let’s keep fighting,” Yixing rushes out and Baekhyun gives him a quick nod. Yixing notices Baekhyun sticks even closer.

From there, they fight as a team—Baekhyun using his light whip to trap the creatures for Yixing to end things with a deadly cut. It works and Yixing notices they kill far more together than separately.

“We can cry later,” Baekhyun whispers as he takes hold of another creature. He must have noticed the pained expression on Yixing’s face every time he cuts one down. “Keep fighting.” He nods and does as told.

It’s only when a scream sounds throughout the room, over all the yelling and clashing between creatures and bearers that Yixing has to pause, eyes desperately searching everywhere until they land on Jongin. A creature has him pinned to the ground and Yixing has to avert his eyes when he sees Jongin’s arm twisted back behind him in an unnatural position. He runs to help, to heal Jongin until another creature pops in front of him. He’s caught off guard and his head is nearly clawed into until he feels himself being pushed to the ground as he watches the creature holding Jongin down being lifted and swirled into the air before it’s frozen and shattered onto the ground. Yixing tries not to holler in pain from his stomach landing on what feels sharp and turns to his right to see Jongdae at his side.

“Be careful,” Jongdae breathes out before he’s lifting himself free of Yixing and off the ground to send a lightning bolt to another creature. Yixing notices how tired he’s beginning to look, how tired _everyone_ is. They need to finish this as soon as possible, but with how many more creatures surround them, Yixing doesn’t know how much longer they can last. A quick thought of just how many bearers were traitors or forced to do this crosses his mind and Jongdae is helping him up off the ground.

As soon as Jongdae leaves his side, Yixing’s immediate thought is to get to Jongin as fast as possible. That’s hard to do when he has to fight his way through several creatures and the Commander stands in his path. But seeing Jongin continue to go on, to continue to fight with a single dagger gives him hope the younger will be alright for now.

It takes killing a few more creatures for Yixing to find his way back to Baekhyun.

“Their numbers are falling,” Baekhyun gets out. Yixing glances around and sees that Baekhyun is right; their numbers are now visibly dwindling and he thinks it’s enough for some of them to hold off while the rest of them fight the Commander.

“I’ll cover you, just get as close to the Commander as possible,” Yixing grits out. He’s starting to feel light headed. “Round up a few others and attack the Commander; I’ll help with keeping the creatures at bay.”

Given the Commander’s sheer size, Yixing doubts he can do much more than attack creatures, but Baekhyun must find the plan good enough as he sprints off for Yixing to tail behind. They reach Chanyeol and Kyungsoo first, helping them finish off two creatures faster with Yixing’s blade and Baekhyun’s whip over Kyungsoo holding them down and tossing them in the air for Chanyeol to burn to a crisp.

“Thanks,” Chanyeol beams as Baekhyun tugs him down to whisper into his ear, Yixing assuming it’s the plan. They then dart off for Yixing and Kyungsoo to follow.

“What’s going on?” Kyungsoo asks as they make their way to what looks like a team of Jongdae, Sehun, and Jongin.

“We’re ending this,” Yixing breathes out and he can feel his body starting to repair itself in the few free moments of non-fighting he has. Lowly, he says, “Some of us will keep the creatures away while the rest attack the Commander.” Yixing glances to the Commander whose stance appears far too relaxed, probably thinking the creatures will eventually finish them all off due to how outnumbered they originally were.

“Got it. But are you alright? You look—” Kyungsoo stops speaking to punch a creature across the room and out of their path. “You look pale and your blades are a bit smaller.”

“I’m tired,” is Yixing’s only answer. It isn’t a lie and he should be able to make it for a little while longer.

They reach Jongdae, Jongin, and Sehun without too much hassle, quickly informing them of their plan. The Commander takes notice.

“Still think you can win?” The Commander howls. “Grouping together won’t save you! It’s _pathetic._ ”

The Commander then lets out an ear piercing scream that has the ground beneath them rumbling. Yixing and Kyungsoo grab onto each other’s arms for balance, Yixing more so as Kyungsoo steadies them.

“You sure you’re good?” Kyungsoo questions and Yixing nods before urging them forward to face the incoming creatures that have the two of them circled. They’ve been separated, but it looks like Baekhyun and the rest are in the same situation.

Before anyone can react, Yixing feels his shoes becoming impossibly wetter than they already are thanks to all the black blood he’s stepped in. Suddenly, his feet grow extremely cold and he looks down to see that they’re being affected by Minseok freezing the creatures in place with the help of Junmyeon’s water. Minseok must be losing steam as well if he needs Junmyeon’s water to freeze them. They have to hurry or else running on what is probably adrenaline won’t be enough.

Yixing and Kyungsoo make quick work of the creatures that are within arms reach as Minseok and Junmyeon drown and freeze the rest. There’s a silent thanks said between them as the four of them make their way to their friends who have fended off most of the creatures that surrounded them. They make quick work of the few that are left until all nine of them have grouped together, the Commander in front of them along with the few dozen or so creatures that remain.

 _We’re almost there._ Yixing thinks as he feels even more dizzy.

“Still think you have a chance?” The Commander lets out a disgusting laugh, black tar falling from his lips. He growls for what feels like the nth time and the creatures attack more violently than they had before.

It feels natural when the nine of them split, knowing what they’re best suited for. Sehun, Jongin, Kyungsoo, Junmyeon, and Yixing go for the creatures while Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Minseok, and Jongdae head straight for the Commander. Yixing’s blades have halved in size, but they’re no less efficient as he and Kyungsoo team together again. They aren’t as fast as taking out the creatures as their friends, their eyes and minds too focused on Chanyeol and Baekhyun and them dodging attacks from the Commander. Yixing has to stop himself from running over to Baekhyun’s side when he sees him get hit and pushed back into Jongdae.

“Stay focused!” Kyungsoo yells at him—or maybe it’s more to himself. Either way, he’s right; Baekhyun and the others know how to handle themselves. The most important thing he can do right now is do his part to kill off the remaining creatures before they join in to help with the Commander.

So Yixing focuses on helping when Kyungsoo holds the creatures in place by either twisting their arms behind their backs or completely pinning them to the floor to Yixing ends them through their nearest vital point. It feels ten times harder than before to kill them all as Yixing notices his breath becoming more uneven, but as soon as they take down the last one near, no more creatures come towards him or Kyungsoo. He takes the brief pause in fighting to give himself a moment to calm himself and use some of his energy to patch part of his wound. It’s not nearly enough—it’s barely an improvement—but it’ll help him push through for a little while longer. Yixing’s ready to run over to the rest of the team when he feels his legs give out and his vision turn a little fuzzy. He clutches his stomach. _Not now; you can make it._ He feels a hand at his shoulder before he notices Junmyeon hoisting him to his feet.

“You good?” Junmyeon asks as he steadies him.

Yixing nods. “I think I just tripped over my own feet.” He prays that didn’t come out as breathy as it sounded.

“It’s not the time to be careless. Let’s get going, they need us. Slice at anywhere you can on the Commander.” Junmyeon smacks Yixing shoulder and gives a reassuring, “We got this.” Yixing gives him a quick grin before he’s following him towards the others, noticing there are no more alive creatures around and Kyungsoo is back at Chanyeol’s side. It also seems that he and Jongin have the only major injuries so far.

When the nine of them stand united, the Commander snarls, “You think getting rid of them means anything?” He throws back his head and laughs, black liquid splattering across the floor and a large amount even gets on the arm of Sehun’s robes. Chanyeol burns the sleeve along with the darkness in a rush; it’s a good call considering the Commander might be able to use it as an opportunity to transform him. “I’ll kill every last one of you before taking Baekhyun and Yixing.”

Yixing’s heart drops at the thought of the Commander taking Baekhyun before anger takes over and he attacks. No more words are exchanged as the nine of them band together to defeat the Commander. It’s chaotic with everyone’s elements flying around and Yixing even has to dodge a few blasts of fire or ice, but he knows his friends don’t mean any harm—it’s worth getting injured a thousand times if it means it would end in the Commander going down and ridding the world of the darkness for good.

As soon as they’re close enough to each other, Yixing works in sync with Kyungsoo and Jongin to try and create a diversion while the rest hit the Commander with everything they’ve got. As much as he wants to be by Baekhyun’s side, he knows it’s best to keep away from him for now if they’re the main targets like he assumes since they were called a missing link. And it works for a while, the Commander’s attention being solely on running after and trying to grab Yixing as the others send attack after attack. And yet nothing seems to cause any real damage, not Chanyeol’s fire or Jongdae’s lightning bolts or even the shots of light Baekhyun continues to send at the Commander.

The Commander stops and laughs, “See? Pathetic. You can’t even harm me no matter how hard you try. You’ll be dead longer before you can even get a dent into me.” He swats his hand towards an incoming Junmyeon, darkness flying off of it. Junmyeon luckily evades the attack and rolls to the ground. “Hand over Yixing and I’ll _think_ of letting you become one of my minions.”

“Fuck you!” Jongdae yells from behind and sends a lightning bolt straight for the Commander’s head at the same time Chanyeol sends a wave of fire. The Commander sends out a cry of pain before he’s growling and dashing towards Chanyeol. Everyone’s eyes widen and Yixing realizes it was only when their elements were combined that it had any effect on the Commander.

Looks like the same idea ran through Junmyeon’s mind when he orders, “We attack him together!” and says nothing more. “Jongin, you get Yixing out of here if we fail!”

Yixing groans in frustration when all he can do is stand back and watch along with Jongin.

As soon as the Commander is an inch within reach of Chanyeol, Kyungsoo tackles him to the ground and keeps him pinned long enough for Jumyeon to create a blanket of water over him. Kyungsoo then smashes the Commander’s face into the hard stone and flees fast enough to Jongin’s side for Minseok to begin to freeze the Commander into place. When the Commander starts to break free, Sehun uses his wind to push him back down.

“I need more water!” Minseok yells and Junmyeon is quick to supply him with more. “Hurry and attack!”

Jongdae and Chanyeol then each send continuous blasts of lightning and fire over the Commander and he screams and growls and snarls undistinguishable words. _It’s working._ Baekhyun then joins in and sends a blast of light straight through the Commander’s chest and probably the ground.

“Don’t let up!” Baekhyun screams as the Commander continues to howl in pain. Yixing now notices Junmyeon and Minseok at his sides.

It’s a strong effort of Sehun beginning to whirl the Commander into the air so he can’t escape and Jongdae, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun combining their gifts. It’s working but not fast enough, Yixing notices as the darkness is healing the Commander. They need more and Yixing tries to think of _anything_ that will help before his friends run out of energy. He can tell they’re losing steam as their powers begin to dim. His friends next to him don’t look any better with how much sweat, dirt, and small traces of darkness they’re covered in paired with their uneven breathing. He can’t lose any of them and Yixing thinks and thinks until everything in him is screaming that he needs to get to Baekhyun now. He runs off despite the shouting and name calling he hears behind him.

As soon as he reaches Baekhyun, Yixing places his hand over Baekhyun’s.

“Yixing,” Baekhyun breathes out, “what are you doing? You need to escape in case—”

Yixing shakes his head as their eyes connect. It’s an uneven transfer of energy, Yixing giving most of his to Baekhyun. Yixing knows Baekhyun can tell what’s going on when his eyes widen and his attack against the Commander falters for the quickest of seconds.

“Let’s end this,” Yixing smiles and his vision really begins to blur now. He feels all too faint, but he keeps standing and holds Baekhyun’s hand, praying it was enough. He thinks he sees Baekhyun’s light beam strengthen and hears the Commander let out a gurgled howl before he’s encased in pure light and electric fire. It's breathtakingly sad.

It’s Sehun who collapses to the ground first, eyes bug eyed as the Commander’s screams stop before he falls to the cold, stone floor. Chanyeol and Jondgae are next and Yixing can hear Kyungsoo screaming in the distance. Yixing then falls into Baekhyun who in turn falls to the ground with a laugh, hugging Yixing all the way down.

There's a moment of silence before Baekhyun is gently lifting them both to sit upright. “Hey, the Commander is—the darkness is leaving him.”

Yixing has to squeeze his eyes shut before he can clearly gaze in the direction of the Commander to see Baekhyun’s words ring true as the darkness oozes off of his body to lie motionless next to him on the ground. Yixing then twists and turns his head to see the same thing happening to the fallen creatures, black liquid pooling everywhere. _Is it really over?_ Yixing questions if they really won, if this is really over when he suddenly feels weak. He places his hand over his stomach and the pain from earlier starts to set in, adrenaline finally wearing off. He curls into himself and wants to throw up. He looks around and _is the world spinning?_ He then feels himself being laid carefully to the ground and Baekhyun, maybe screaming or crying or maybe it’s a bit of both. Does he hear Sehun and Jongdae and the rest saying his name too? Yixing can’t differentiate between all the voices and is relieved all of this just might be over.

There’s a heavy weight on his chest and he thinks his robes are being pulled from his body before his world goes black, his last thought hoping no one will be too upset with him.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The smell of sunflowers envelopes his senses before Yixing’s eyes are weakly opening and he sits up with groan. His side is in _pain_ as well as his leg and he tries to recall what happened. There was a lot of searching and then fighting those creatures and he faintly recalls being injured at some point and were his friends crying? But what about— _Oh yeah, the Commander, he thinks is dead. Did we really win?_ Yixing looks around the room to find himself among other sleeping and awake bearers, some talking to their friends and others silently sitting or reading a book. He sees a few higher ups taking notes and running around and a vase with a single sunflower on a makeshift stand right next to his bed.

A few long seconds pass before he realizes that other bearers are awake along with him and his mouth falls open until the corners of his lips begin to move upward. _We won?_ he thinks and gently falls to his back. Everything feels so _normal_ with the quiet chatter that surrounds him and a sudden, almost overwhelming sense of relief fills his body. He doesn’t think he’s ever felt so happy to be lying in a medic room. But most importantly _no one_ has to worry about the darkness anymore. _It’s really gone._ It must be or else there wouldn’t be such a strong aura of calm.

Yixing only gets a few minutes of peace to really let the fact that the darkness has been defeated sink in when familiar voices enter the room. He doesn't bother to sit up as Jongin, Sehun, and Baekhyun gather around his bed. Yixing smiles before he notices the small cuts and bruises that still linger on his friends. The sling holding Jongin’s arm definitely isn’t missed. He tries to call his energy to the surface, but it’s so weak and even hurts a little. He lets out a tiny groan at not being able to help.

“Wow, you were right,” Sehun says as he looks to Baekhyun. “Are your energies still mixed?” Baekhyun nods and Yixing does the same. It’s amazing how he can still feel Baekhyun’s light, still so warm and inviting despite being faint, within himself even after feeling like he has zero energy to spare.

“How are you?” Yixing asks, looking over all three of his friends. “It feels like I've been slammed into the nearest wall repeatedly on my side.”

Baekhyun immediately frowns and sits on Yixing’s bed—right at his side—and takes his hand, weaving their fingers together. Yixing squeezes down to reassure him he’s alright. “Sorry, the other healers are stretched thin trying to help everyone right now so they did the bare minimum of stitching your wounds back together,” Baekhyun informs. “There’re lots of bearers they have to attend to.”

That’s understandable. As long as his life isn’t in any danger, Yixing is okay with letting his own body do the work of healing itself. Yixing just wishes he wasn’t so wiped out so he could lend a hand or at the very least instruct other healers on what to do. 

“Where did the other healers even come from?” Yixing asks when it hits him that other healers are on base.

“The first full batch just arrived a few days ago. We sent Jongin for help after you fainted and were able to get a few here before more could show. The base is a mess and they’re pulling everyone who can help from other bases here.”

 _A few days ago?_ “Few day—I’ve been asleep for that long?”

Sehun jumps in to answer, “Yeah, all of us needed about that much rest. We pushed ourselves more than our bodies could keep up with.” He lets out a deep sigh before continuing, “I’m sure Jongin only needed the least amount of rest because he wasn’t teleporting as much. I did hear he passed out as soon as he brought those healers here though.” He looks to Jongin who just nods to confirm his statement. “Even Baekhyun woke up yesterday and should probably still be in bed.”

 _“Baekhyun,”_ Yixing scolds. “Why aren’t you resting?”

“Because I wanted to see you,” Baekhyun simply answers, voice so soft that Yixing melts just a little. He then adds, “I had to know you were really alright.”

“He felt you waking up and made me pop here. Sehun tagged along since he was with me,” Jongin says.

“Oh? It’s good to see you two getting along,” Yixing grins.

Jongin smiles back. “Well, being around each other so much kind of breaks the tension and you share things you usually wouldn’t. Still think he's kind of a snob.”

Sehun rolls his eyes and playfully pushes at Jongin’s non-broken arm. “He doesn't mean that.”

A warm silence falls over them and Sehun grabs himself and Jongin chairs to sit at Yixing’s bedside. Yixing notes Jongin leaning his head on Sehun’s shoulder.

Yixing then asks, “Where are the others?”

All three of his friends huff before Sehun answers, “Chanyeol and Kyungsoo are up but simply resting since they woke up earlier today and last night. Minseok is instructing other ice bearers with making ice packs for the wounded. Junmyeon and Jongdae are drowning in debriefings.”

While he’s happy Kyungsoo and Chanyeol are still able to rest, it doesn’t appear it’ll last for long with their other friends being put to work already. “You’d think they’d give them a break with everything that’s happened,” Yixing mumbles. He already isn’t looking forward to their commanding officers bombarding him with a thousand questions. “We deserve at least a few days rest.”

"Yeah. Because this involves the darkness, they want to know everything now.” Sehun’s lips flatten before he explains, “As soon as we were deemed well enough to function without help, we spent five hours the other day going over everything and somehow they still don’t think it’s enough. They’ll probably be asking you and Baekhyun a ton of things _soon._ ”

Jongin then tacks on, “But Junmyeon wants to make sure they do it in the open in case any other higher ups have ulterior motives to finding out the truth. They know about your energies mixing and the Commander calling you _‘the missing link.’_ Jongdae’s also complained about them complaining about you two needing to wake up fast. Heard they wanted to question you together.”

Yixing’s eyes hit the back of his head. _Just great._ All he wants is sleep and Baekhyun to stay close and talk with his friends first about everything and not talk to their superiors when even he doesn’t fully understand what went on. 

“We have nothing to hide, so I’m sure it’ll be alright minus the hundreds of questions.”

“They’ll probably also question us nine together as well,” Jongin yawns. “We did separate and joint debriefings.”

Yixing then asks, “Here’s probably a mess, but how are the other bases doing?”

“Heard they were scrambling around to find capable healers and light bearers to finish off the remaining traces of darkness before they’re sent here to help. It’s pretty much dead so it’s not a threat, but they want to thoroughly check everyone that has been “contaminated” in the past and currently has traces within them. They were talking about quarantining villages and setting up other bearers to patrol villages to make sure nothing gets in or out to make sure it can’t ever come back.”

Yixing hums thoughtfully, trying not to think about the logistics of it all. He then asks, “Anything else new, darkness matters aside?” to change the topic.

The topic slightly shifts to Sehun and Jongin saying they’ve heard about them getting promotions from Junmyeon and their hopes of making everything run more smoothly. It’s cute seeing them both so excited about what the future may hold. Baekhyun doesn’t join in the conversation, only silently listening and acknowledging what the youngest have to say. His attention seems to mostly focus on Yixing and eventually settling to lie with him despite the tiny space of the medic bed, hands still linked.

Eventually, Jongin and Sehun are called by one of their superior officers to help around base.

“Sorry about not being well enough to heal your arm,” Yixing apologizes as Jongin and Sehun get up to leave. “But as soon as I’m better, I will.”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Jongin waves off. “It’s just broken and fine to heal naturally. It’s kind of hard using one hand though, but I’ll be okay, Just get plenty of rest.”

“And don’t do anything that would scar everyone else in here,” Sehun adds. “You two aren’t alone.”

Yixing tilts his head as Sehun snickers away and Jongin winks in their direction before the both of them are vanishing from sight. He hears Baekhyun giggle next to him before Baekhyun’s sitting up, content expression on his face.

“They’re cute,” Baekhyun comments before he’s looking down to Yixing and says, “You tried to pretend you weren’t injured and pushed through anyway. Did you forget we were linked?”

Yes, he did for a moment until he realized they were. He had to continue on as if nothing was wrong to keep Baekhyun calm and fighting. 

“Ah yes, energy buddies,” Yixing jokes to lighten the now serious mood, but it just makes Baekhyun frown. “I’m alright.”

“You had me _scared,_ Yixing,” Baekhyun whispers, but to hear how frightened Baekhyun _still_ sounds makes Yixing’s heart ache. “The pain you were in, you could have died and I—what would we do without you?”

Silence overtakes them and Yixing can feel Baekhyun’s energy swirl within him, a thousand different emotions attached, but one clearly stands out. 

“What would _you_ do without me?” he then questions. “It feels like your heart is breaking at even the thought of me gone.” Baekhyun remains quiet and begins to play with Yixing’s hands. It puts them both at ease, even if only a little. “I wouldn’t die so easily; I had a promise to keep afterall.”

“Right,” Baekhyun mumbles and Yixing wonders if Baekhyun had forgotten all about it or if he intended to not bring it up.

“Are you going to tell me now?”

“Tell you what?” Baekhyun glances over everything except Yixing.

“The important thing you had to keep from me until all this was over,” he reminds and Baekhyun’s cheeks begin to redden.

“Yeah, um,” Baekhyun stutters before exhaling deeply. At no rush to Yixing, it then takes minutes upon minutes for him to get out, “You know that I’ve tried to get your attention for years,” he starts as he guides Yixing to sit up along with him. His tone is the most gentle Yixing’s ever heard. It’s different from what he’s used to hearing, but it brings a sense of comfort before the regret settles in from always pushing Baekhyun away. His eyes turn away and his vision goes to Yixing’s hands as he continues, “It’s because I like you. Really, _really_ like you.”

Hearing that Baekhyun actually _likes_ him comes as a shock and yet it doesn’t. Over the years, Baekhyun has tried to get close, tried for a friendship to blossom between them. It makes sense of why he’s caught Baekhyun staring at him from time to time and why his cheeks would always turn pink. How could he have been so dense?

“Why?” Yixing asks and Baekhyun’s eyes finally meet his own. After all this time of never letting Baekhyun in, it’s still kind of confusing as to why Baekhyun would still like him.

Baekhyun just shrugs. 

“Because you’re you, I guess?” He pouts and looks as if he’s thinking of a more thorough answer. A few long seconds pass then Baekhyun gets out, “Attraction sometimes doesn’t make sense, but if I had to I think it’s because of how hard working you always are and how gentle you are with everyone. You were always someone to be admired.” He pauses and then rushes out, “Plus you’re hot.”

“I know I was never intentionally mean, but it’s—really me of all people?”

“Yes _you,_ Yixing. I just like you. I tried crushing on other people, but my heart always leads back to you.”

Yixing feels his own face warming and he still can’t fathom why Baekhyun feels the way he does. Then again, attraction really doesn’t have to make sense as Baekhyun had said; here he is just a few days later of being so close to Baekhyun thinking he can’t imagine not having him by his side. And now Yixing can understand Baekhyun’s reasoning for wanting to wait. Had he died, Baekhyun would have had to live knowing he would never get the chance to explore a relationship with him. If Baekhyun was the one to pass, Yixing can only imagine the _what ifs_ and how much time he had wasted not letting Baekhyun get close once he realized his own budding feelings. Baekhyun needed to stay calm before their final fight as did Yixing. Putting their own feelings into it would have compromised everything.

But they’re here now.

It’s funny how Baekhyun has made such an impact on him in such a short amount of time, but Yixing can’t see his life without Baekhyun now and he wants to explore his own feelings, together with Baekhyun. Baekhyun must be able to sense his emotions because he’s attempting to hide a grin and Yixing cups his hands.

“Then after I’m properly healed, after we both are” Yixing starts, “We can go somewhere together, just us. I think we deserve a break.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen. 

“Together as in?” Baekhyun questions with a tilt of his head and a single eyebrow raised.

“As in I want to give us a shot,” he answers. “I don’t really know what the future holds for us, but I think it’s worth trying.”

Baekhyun outright grins before he’s carefully clinging to Yixing and Yixing wraps his arms around him. “You really mean that?”

“I do.”

They give each other the fondest of smiles and Baekhyun helps Yixing lie back down before snuggling against him. Yixing feels Baekhyun’s happiness radiating through him and he falls asleep, wrapped in Baekhyun’s arms, excited for what the future holds.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Yixing wakes, unable to move, and he grins when he sees Baekhyun still sleeping on top of him. It’s slightly uncomfortable, but he’s grown accustomed to Baekhyun falling asleep in a position that leaves some part of his body numb or unable to move. It’s cute and he really couldn’t think of waking any other way and simply cards his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair until he too is slowly stirring awake. Baekhyun’s eyes flutter open and he slightly sits up and wipes the drool from his lips as well as Yixing’s chest.

“Morning,” Baekhyun smiles and lies back down in a more comfortable position for them both. He then places a kiss on the base of Yixing’s neck.

“It’s a little in the afternoon,” Yixing gently corrects and pulls Baekhyun up enough for a quick kiss. “I didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

“Oh, really?” Baekhyun sighs in content and smirks. “Guess you really tired me out.”

Yixing doesn’t need to mention how boneless he feels as well; he’s sure Baekhyun can tell. “It’s been four years; we had reason to celebrate.”

“Ah yes, four wonderful years since I gave you this necklace.” He trails his fingers across Yixing’s neck, lightly touching across the choker until his pointer finger stops at the square, metal plate in the center. It’s embedded with three white stones to match Baekhyun’s own ring he uses for his light gift and even matches the earring on his left lobe as well. It helps when they’re sent on missions and Baekhyun needs an extra boost that Yixing can give. They still haven’t figured out the full extent of what sharing their abilities can do, but it’s a work in progress. Hell, they even haven’t even uncovered why they were called _‘the missing link,’_ or how much history those traitors erased, but Yixing is hopeful they might someday. He’s brought out of his thoughts when Baekhyun speaks again. “It’s also been three since we were married.”

Memories of Baekhyun being secretive for a few weeks before he finally slipped a rose gold band onto his finger crosses his mind and Yixing can’t help but pull him fully on top of himself before he’s kissing Baekhyun tenderly. The way Baekhyun’s lips mesh against his never fails to make him melt, make him feel like Baekhyun is truly and only his.

“I don’t think we’re tired enough yet,” Yixing whispers and Baekhyun gasps into a smile when Yixing gropes his ass.

Yixing wordlessly kisses Baekhyun again and again, ready for them to tackle what lies ahead and more. _Together._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are very much appreciated!!!
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!


End file.
